March 10, 2007 - Savelugu, Ghana - With the start of the rainy season still weeks away, the pond at Dikunani dam is the only of four water sources that has not completely dried out around Savelugu - a town in northern Ghana that is at the epicenter of the guinea worm epidemic. The pond is used by hundreds of people daily who sometimes walk several kilometers to fetch water. Despite the presence of mesh filters available to those who come get water, cases of guinea worm in the area have gone up sharply in the recent months. 

A parasite transmitted through drinking water, guinea worm emerges from the host's body a year after drinking contaminated water. Measuring up to 3 feet, it can only be pulled out an inch or two every day to prevent it from breaking inside the host's body. It can take up to two months to completely remove a worm from the victim's body. The disease is usually not fatal, but a worm breaking inside the body can cause a secondary infection which, in the world's poorest regions, can often lead to death. While fatalities are uncommon, the parasite is debilitating, preventing farmers from working the fields, children from going to school. According to the Carter Center, rice farmers in southeastern Nigeria lost $20 million USD in one year because of outbreaks of Guinea worm disease.

Despite a widespread eradication program, Ghana still has the second largest number of cases in the world - after Sudan. In northern Ghana, 65 percent of the cases are found in children, who are often the ones in charge of fetching water, and sometimes lack the discipline to refrain from drinking straight from ponds or rivers. Victims often immerse their limbs in water to relieve the burning pain caused by an emerging worm - and contaminate an entire body of water.