The ten endemic countries outside of Sudan, Nigeria and Ghana (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Togo, and Uganda) have dramatically resumed their collective march to dracunculiasis eradication. As illustrated in Figure 1, the ten countries reduced their reported cases of the disease from 2,121 in January-April 1998, to 654 cases during the same period of 1999, a reduction of 69.2. The individual rates of reduction in the ten countries during the 4 month period are: Chad, 100%; Mauritania, 100%; Burkina Faso, 82%; Uganda, 86%; Cote d’Ivoire, 79%; Niger, 81%; Mali, 77%; Ethiopia, 74%; Togo, 52%; and Benin, 20%. This four month period includes part of the peak transmission season in Chad, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Togo, And Benin. Table 1 and figure 2 show the latest update of cases reported and percent changes in cases by country. The status of surveillance in Burkina Faso, however, is still uncertain.

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