Fighting Disease:  Ethiopia

Go to: Guinea Worm Eradication Program | River Blindness Program | Trachoma Control Program | Malaria Control Program | Agriculture Program

Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative

From 1997-2010, at the invitation of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the Carter Center-supported Ethiopian Public Health Training Initiative worked successfully in partnership with seven Ethiopian universities and the Ethiopian government (the ministries of health and education) to address the dangerous void in rural health services for 75 million Ethiopians.

When the program began, Ethiopia had one of the lowest life expectancies in the world and one of the highest infant mortality rates. This critical situation was compounded by the frequent migration of Ethiopia's skilled health professionals to other countries, leaving a dangerous void of service providers. Read full text >

Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease

Current status: Endemic
Indigenous cases reported in 2011: 8
Includes two cases reported as imported from South Sudan.

For the most current 2012 Guinea worm case reports, read the Guinea Worm Wrap-Up newsletter >

Dracunculiasis, or Guinea worm disease, is a preventable parasitic infection contracted when a person ingests drinking water from stagnant sources containing copepods (commonly referred to as water fleas) that harbor infective Guinea worm larvae. Inside a person's body, the larvae grow for a year, becoming thin threadlike worms up to 1 meter long. These worms create agonizingly painful blisters in the skin through which they slowly exit the body, preventing the victim from attending school, caring for children, or harvesting crops. Learn more about the historic Carter Center-led campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease >

The Ethiopia Ministry of Health established its National Dracunculiasis Eradication Program in 1993 with assistance from The Carter Center, and launched a village-by-village nationwide search during which 1,120 cases were found in 99 villages in the southwest part of the country. Transmission of Guinea worm disease in the Southern Nationalities, Nations, and Peoples region (SNNPR) was interrupted in 2001. In 2007, Ethiopia reached a milestone by reporting zero indigenous cases for 12 consecutive months. Unfortunately, transmission of the disease resumed in 2008 when the country reported 41 indigenous cases. The unexpected resurgence of Guinea worm disease in Gambella region during 2008 demonstrates the constant need for vigilance in eradication efforts. Read full text >

Controlling River Blindness

River blindness is a parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of small black flies that breed in rapidly flowing streams and rivers. The disease causes severe itching, eye damage, and often blindness but is preventable through health education and distribution of the medicine Mectizan®. Learn more about the Carter Center's campaign to eliminate river blindness from the Americas and to control it in Africa >

For additional information and updates, read the latest issue of Eye of the Eagle >

Onchocerciasis, commonly known as river blindness, was first reported in southwestern regions in 1939, while the northwestern part of the country was recognized to be endemic in the 1970s. Read full text >

Controlling Trachoma

The leading cause of preventable blindness in the world, trachoma is an excruciating bacterial disease endemic to the poorest countries of the world. Although not typically a fatal disease, severe trachoma is disabling, debilitating, and eventually leads to blindness. The Carter Center supports trachoma control in six African countries in partnership with trachoma-endemic communities, ministries of health, the Lions Clubs International Foundation, Pfizer Inc., and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Learn more about the Carter Center's Trachoma Control Program >

The prevalence of blindness in Ethiopia is thought to be the highest in the world. After cataract, the preventable bacterial infection trachoma was the second-leading cause of blindness in Ethiopia (afflicting 1.2 million people), placing the vast majority of the 75 million population at risk. Read full text >

Controlling Malaria

Malaria is a potentially fatal mosquito-borne parasitic disease, widespread in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Each year, the preventable disease, which causes high fevers and flu-like symptoms, kills nearly 1 million people (mostly children), with approximately 350-500 million cases reported annually worldwide. Learn more about the Carter Center's Malaria Control Program >

The Carter Center expanded its support for health work in Ethiopia to include a malaria control initiative in 2007. Malaria is reported to be the single largest cause of death in Ethiopia, the largest and most populous country in the Horn of Africa. Read full text >

Increasing Food Production

Ethiopia's government is strongly vested in finding lasting solutions to the country's chronic food insecurity. Sasakawa-Global 2000, a joint venture between the Carter Center's Agriculture Program and the Sasakawa Africa Association, helped Ethiopian farmers starting in 1993 to improve agricultural production. The program supported regional departments of agriculture in high-potential agricultural areas of the country, helping them to more effectively assist farmers in maintaining high levels of food crop production. The prescription was simple: Provide farmers with credit for fertilizers and enhanced seeds to grow test plots. These test plots often yielded 200 to 400 percent more crops, and farmers went on to teach other farmers, creating a ripple effect to stimulate self-sufficiency.

The program was part of a larger partnership led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug that helped more than 8 million small-scale sub-Saharan African farmers in countries where malnutrition is a constant threat.

The Carter Center ended its agricultural activities in Ethiopia in 2011.

Read more about the Carter Center's agriculture work — with the Sasakawa-Africa Association — in Ethiopia >