Fighting Disease: Pakistan

Eradicating Guinea Worm

Current Status:Transmission stopped, 1993
Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication: 1996

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 >

At the personal urging of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and through the help of The Carter Center and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pakistan became one of the first nations to establish a Guinea Worm Eradication Program in 1986. A nationwide survey conducted the following year, in 1987, estimated a total of 2,400 cases of Guinea worm disease in 408 villages in the North West Frontier, Punjab, and Sindh provinces. Within seven years – with hard work and commitment from the endemic communities – Pakistan had stopped Guinea worm disease transmission. Read full text >

Preventing Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus

The Carter Center and an independent partner, the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, worked in Pakistan to reduce the incidence of an extremely painful and often deadly disease, neonatal tetanus, or lockjaw. Caused by a toxin called Clostridium tetani, maternal and neonatal tetanus is contracted during birthing procedures and is a primary cause of infant death during the first seven days of life in many countries.

Mothers and mothers-to-be usually entrust their care and child delivery to traditional birth attendants - or midwives - who may not be informed to advise their clients to be vaccinated against tetanus. To overcome this barrier, The Carter Center, in collaboration with government and local health professionals, studied the beliefs and practices of midwives to improve the education of mothers about the need for immunization. Studies also evaluated birthing techniques that might affect the risks of neonatal tetanus, such as unclean surgical instruments or the failure of midwives to wash their hands before performing a delivery.

The Carter Center also worked to improve collaboration among local ministry of health child survival staff and midwives to avoid or eliminate unsafe birthing and neonatal care practices, to establish antiseptic delivery methods, and to refer pregnant women and mothers with past histories of neonatal tetanus for immunizations to prevent contracting the disease again.