Authorities in South Sudan’s Torit State have confirmed a case of Guinea worm disease after seven years in the Mura-Hatiha Village of Torit East County.

Dr. Mathew Ohitai Ohide, the state health ministry focal point person for Guinea worm told Radio Tamazuj that a specimen sent to the United States of America for confirmation came back positive.

“The worm appeared on the leg of 24-year-old Angelina Ihoto on the 23rd of last month. She is from Mura-hatiha but a resident of Hidonge Ifura. On the 26th the husband called to inform me of the case. He then pulled the worm out and put it in a glass container and added some local alcoholic drink to preserve it.” 

He added, “On the 26th they sent the specimen to Juba, and from Juba, it was sent to America in Atlanta and last week it was confirmed that it is a Guinea worm case.” 

Ohitai pointed out that a team from the Carter Centre Guinea worm Eradication Program visited the area for assessments and investigations of the drinking water.

“Now we have established a camp there that will treat the water sources every 28 days,” says Ohitai.

For his part, Torit East Commissioner Toby Majak Thomas said this is the first case in seven years.  

"The people of Iloli village have stayed for seven years without Guinea worm cases in Iloli and Mura-hatiha and now it has appeared in Mura-hatiha,” he confirmed.

The new case is a setback in the efforts to eradicate the disease in the country. In March last year, the Carter Center and South Sudan’s health minister Dr. Riek Gai Kok, announced that South Sudan had officially stopped the transmission of Guinea worm disease. 

Carter Center founders former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter have made Guinea worm eradication a top priority.

The Guinea worm disease (GWD), also called Dracunculiasis, is a parasitic infection transmitted through drinking water contaminated with guinea worm larvae.