Cost-benefit analysis of the Global Dracunculiasis Eradication Campaign (GDEC)

Dracunculiasis (or Guinea worm disease) was endemic in several African countries as well as in India, Pakistan, and Yemen. The past decade, however, has seen a remarkable decline in the incidence of dracunculiasis as a result of the Global Dracunculiasis Eradication Campaign. The authors compare spending on the eradication campaign with estimates of increased agricultural production resulting from reductions in infection-related morbidity as a result of the program. Using a project horizon of 1987-98, they calculate the economic rate of return as 29 percent, under conservative assumptions about the average incapacitation caused by Guinea worm infection (five weeks). After 1998, Sudan is projected to be the only country in which the disease will remain endemic. The authors'results indicate that for economic returns in Sudan to be consistent with those in other countries where the disease was endemic, eradication must be completed in Sudan at the very latest by 2001.