“People have lived with this for generations,” Yibi said. “We are hoping that in 2017, we will probably get to zero.”

While there is no direct medication for the disease, the worm’s breeding cycle can be broken by ensuring that infected people do not enter bodies of water ― especially those used for drinking water ― while the worm is working its way out of the skin.

The cycle can also be broken by giving people access to cleaner water sources or by cleaning the water before they drink it. In South Sudan, people have been encouraged to use water filters to avoid swallowing the worm’s eggs.

It has been a long, hard process, said Yibi, but “now when I go back to a village where Guinea worm was once common and ask if there are cases, the people shout, ‘No! We don’t want to even hear its name. That is dead and gone to us.’”