The world has never fully eradicated a parasite, but with the help of former US president Jimmy Carter, it could be set to do just that.

Health workers say they have made big steps toward eradicating the flesh-burrowing guinea worm, recording a massive drop in infections in South Sudan, previously the worst-affected country.

South Sudan’s Health Minister Riek Gai Kok has issued in a statement, after workers announced they recorded just five cases last year.

It marks a drop of over 90 per cent from 2014, a year in which 70 cases were recorded — the highest in the world.

The debilitating water-borne guinea worm parasite hatches from larvae within the body before digging its way out.

In a condition sometimes known as dracunculiasis, meaning “little dragons”, long white worms dig from inside the body towards the skin, where they chemically burn their way through flesh and leave thousands of new larvae as they exit.

Authorities have managed to break the breeding cycle by making sure those infected do not wash in sources of drinking water while the worm is emerging from their skin.

Patients have their worms teased out by coiling them around a stick, which some believe is the origin for the classical medical symbol of a snake coiled around a staff.

Guinea worms can emerge anywhere from the eyes to the sexual organs, but could be stamped out for good following a two-decade campaign by The Carter Centre; former US president Jimmy Carter’s not-for-profit organisation.

Last year saw just 22 cases in just four nations across Africa, compared to a staggering 3.5 million in 20 countries when the push began in 1986.

If Carter’s campaign succeeds, it will make guinea worm the first parasitic disease to be totally eradicated, and the first human disease to be wiped out since smallpox in 1979.

“Eradication of this painful and debilitating disease is within our reach,” Mr Kok said.

Outside of South Sudan, guinea worms have appeared only in Chad, Ethiopia and Mali.

Chad recorded nine cases last year, while Mali had five and Ethiopia just three.

“As we get closer to zero, each case takes on increasing importance,” Jimmy Carter said in a statement.

“Full surveillance must continue in the few remaining endemic nations and neighbouring countries until no cases remain.”

The organisation has put up the following video to mark its success (Warning: not for the squeamish).