>The eradication program works by offering cash rewards for reporting cases in areas where the worm is present.

I wonder how they prevented a cobra effect[0] here? Clearly they did avoid it since there were so few human cases. Or maybe some of the animal cases reflect this?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_Effect

I would assume the amount they paid is "valuable, but not 'disabled by worm for the prize' valuable", or it's just that hard to find the larvae now.

There's also probably a part where if someone was caught having released it in their area, they would probably be found dead in a ditch for inflicting that on people.