Fighting Disease:  Ghana

Go to: Controlling Trachoma | Agriculture Program

Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease

Current status: Transmission stopped, May 2010 (read the announcement)
Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication: Pending

For the most current 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 Carter Center began leading the international Guinea worm eradication campaign in 1986. The following year, Ghana became one of the Carter Center Guinea Worm Eradication Program's first country partners (in addition to Pakistan). The Carter Center's relationship with the Ghanaian Ministry of Health has remained strong as the international eradication campaign has grown to include other partners, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF. 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 >

From 1999 to 2011, the Carter Center's Trachoma Control Program, with support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, has assisted the Ghana Health Service's Trachoma Control Program to promote hygiene and sanitation. In 2008, with technical assistance from The Carter Center, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to eliminate blinding trachoma as a public health problem through implementation of the SAFE strategy. Read full text >

Increasing Food Production

Working hand in hand with the Ghanaian Ministry of Farming and Agriculture, the Carter Center's Sasakawa-Global 2000 Program began assisting farmers in the Ashanti and Central regions of Ghana in 1986 to improve food security. The program, in partnership with the Sasakawa Africa Association, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug until his death in 2009, has been part of a larger joint initiative that has helped more than 8 million small-scale, sub-Saharan farmers.

The prescription was simple: Farmers were provided with credit for fertilizers and seeds to grow production test plots. Following successful harvests, which usually exceed previous harvests by 200 to 400 percent, farmers taught their neighbors about the new technologies, creating a ripple effect to stimulate food self-reliance in the nation. Read full text >