According to provisional surveillance reports received to date, only 20 cases of dracunculiasis were detected outside of Sudan during January-May 2010, all but one of which were reportedly contained and the sources adequately explained. This compares to 223 cases reported from the same three countries during the same period of 2009, of which 9 cases were reportedly uncontained. Ethiopia reported 11 cases so far in 2010, including one uncontained case in May (vs. 13 in January-May 2009, all allegedly contained), Ghana reported 8 cases (vs. 209 in January-May 2010, 9 of which were reportedly uncontained), and Mali reported one case during January-May 2010 versus one case during the same period in 2009. Southern Sudan reported a provisional total of 303 cases, 78 of which were not contained, in January-April 2010 (Tables 1 and 4, and Figure 1).

Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library collection