The momentous medical milestones achieved during the earliest era of the 20th century impressed many to believe that the global battle with infectious diseases was largely over, thus the focus to ascertain causes, treatments, prevention, and cures for chronic illnesses (Sattenspiel, 2000). This belief can be justified in Western Europe and the United States, but it was certainly not warranted for most parts of the globe.
In contemporary history, the tropical regions have faced the scourge of infectious diseases than the temperate world. The thrive for these infectious diseases in the tropics is attributable to high levels of biodiversity in hosts, vectors, and pathogens which are encouraged by both biological and environmental factors, as well as social factors that sabotage efforts to control diseases (Sattenspiel, 2000).
Neglected infectious diseases remain a major global health challenge and include a group of endemic diseases occurring in the impecunious regions of Asia, Africa, and America (Romero, Pimenta and Diament, 2012). The World Health Organization has a list of NIDs, of which Dracunculiasis is among (WHO, 2007).
Dracunculiasis commonly known as …show more content…
1: Life cycle of D. medinensis (CDC, 2015).
This report will explain the course and geographical distribution of dracunculiasis as well as its public health impacts. Furthermore, it will elucidate how the incident was managed and policies implemented in eradicating the little monster.
INCIDENT REPORT AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
Dracunculiasis is a disease that has ravaged human population for decades; the presence of disease is documented in the Egyptian Medical Ebers Papyrus of herbal knowledge around 1550BC when a calcified worm was detected on an Egyptian mummy (Sandle, 2014). According to Sattenspiel (2000), the ancient existence of dracunculiasis is said to be the origin of the medical symbol, the rod of Asclepius which depicts the conventional style of extracting the