Guinea worm nears eradication milestone as 2025 records drop to 10 human cases

Global health officials report a record-low 10 human guinea-worm cases in 2025 (in Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan), keeping the eradication program on track to potentially remove the parasite as a human-disease threat—only the second disease to be eradicated after smallpox. Animal infections persist in several countries, but case reporting, public education, and safer water measures continue to drive transmission down since 1986, with hundreds of millions of cases prevented.