Nigeria Fights and Wins Against the Terror of Guinea Worms

According the New York Times Article "Campaign to Eradicate Guinea Worm in Hard-Hit Nigeria May Have Worked" posted on December 7th, 2009, the debilitating parasite known as the Guinea Worm may be on the road to eradication. The Guinea Worm is a parasite that comes from drinking water infected with it's first how, a tiny water flea. The Guinea Worm then lives within a person's body for up to a year and then starts emerging from the skin through a sore that it creates. If the worm in not caught before this point, then removing the worm becomes a painful process that can take weeks to complete. The health professional can only remove a few millimeters of the worm a day because the worm attaches to the inside of the person, which makes the removal very painful. During the time that the worm is being removed, the sore can get infected, and the person can be maimed for life. Knowing the damage Guinea Worm, the Nigerian government created a social program to fight off Ginuea Worm infection with classes on safe water and health officials When the article was posted, Nigeria had no reported incidents of Guinea Worm in a year, and that incredibly good sign that has not been broken so far. It will take another two years before the country can truly say that is has eliminated the worm, but the fist year is the hardest.

The fact that the government is working to fight such an intractable problem definitely increases the legitimacy of government, because the will of the people is one of the key parts of the legitimacy in Nigeria. Helping defeat a disease that ruins live every year helps improve the rural peoples view of the Government, and that is always very important.

Photo From Times Report

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