(Nature) – Community-based efforts have reduced the parasitic infection to a handful of cases in humans each year, but the emergence of infections in dogs and other animals threatens to derail progress.

In 2006, a contested region of southern Sudan that had been embroiled in a long civil war recorded more than 20,000 cases of Guinea worm disease, 80% of the world’s total. Last year, the now independent nation of South Sudan reported just two cases of the parasitic infection, down from five the previous year.

The drastic decline has been achieved thanks to an eradication programme that relies, in large part, on community-based volunteers. (Read More)