Public health extras: Guinea worm on decline, alcohol taxes lower STDs

Guinea worm disease nearly eradicated

Fewer than two dozen cases of Guinea worm disease were reported worldwide in 2015, according to new data from the Carter Center, which has been leading an international effort to eradicate the parasitic disease for three decades.

Last year, just 22 cases of Guinea worm disease were reported globally, which represents an 83 percent reduction from the 126 cases reported in 2014. When the Carter Center began its eradication campaign, about 3.5 million Guinea worm cases occurred every year in Africa and Asia.

Guinea worm disease is contracted through contaminated drinking water, and often incapacitates its victims for weeks or months. If the disease is eventually eradicated, it will be the first disease eliminated without the use of vaccines or medical treatments. Instead, the disease is being wiped out through community-based behavioral interventions, such as teaching people to filter their drinking water.

“As we get closer to zero, each case takes on increasing importance,” said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in a news release. “Full surveillance must continue in the few remaining endemic nations and neighboring countries until no cases remain to ensure the disease does not return.”

The remaining countries with Guinea worm disease cases are Ethiopia, Mali, South Sudan and Chad, where Guinea worm has begun appearing in dogs as well.

Higher alcohol tax tied to less gonorrhea

Increasing alcohol taxes can have a positive effect on rates of sexually transmitted diseases, found a study published in December in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

To conduct the study, researchers examined data from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System both before and after an alcohol tax increase went into effect in Maryland in 2011. They found that rates of gonorrhea decreased by 24 percent in the state after the sales tax increase. More specifically, the study uncovered 2,400 fewer statewide cases of gonorrhea in the 18 months after the alcohol tax went up.

Researchers did not find a similar effect in Maryland’s chlamydia rates, though they noted that the disease’s asymptomatic nature means people may be less likely to seek out testing for chlamydia.