Carter Center Global Health Efforts

Activities By Country

Fighting Disease: Togo

Eradicating Guinea Worm

Current status: Transmission stopped, December 2006 (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 >

In 1992, the national Guinea Worm Eradication Program in Togo began its first search for cases of Guinea worm disease and found 8,179 cases of infection in 584 villages. Since then, The Carter Center worked with the national program to reduce the incidence of Guinea worm disease. These efforts yielded success in December 2006, when the program declared its last case in the village of Kpégno Agoromé.

Togo is the size of the U.S. state of West Virginia, making the short distance between Guinea worm disease-endemic and nonendemic areas a concern when eradication efforts began. Read full text >

Increasing Food Production

In addition to the Guinea Worm Eradication Program, The Carter Center began assisting Togo with agricultural development in the early 1990s as part of an overarching vision to build healthier lives in the country.

From 1993 to 1998, the Carter Center's Agriculture Program, in partnership with the Sasakawa Africa Association, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug until his death in 2009, helped Togolese farmers improve food security in Togo. The Togolese program was part of a larger effort, known as SG 2000, that helped more than 8 million small-scale sub-Saharan African farmers grow more food and enjoy better nutrition and health. Read full text >

Multimedia

Guinea Worm in Togo
View Slideshow >>

All photos: Carter Center/E. Staub

After Akouma endures 30 minutes of intense treatment, the emerging Guinea worm is almost 12 inches long on the first day. By the time a threadlike, whitish Guinea worm burns a hole from inside, breaks through the skin, and forms a sore on the person carrying it, the worm has lived in them for about one year. Traditionally, the infected person wraps the Guinea worm around a small stick and extracts it by rolling the 2- to 3-foot worm on it, a slow, painful process that takes many weeks.

After treating the Guinea worm from emerging Phatpa's left foot, Lady, the village animator, helps her better understand the cycle of Guinea worm by using a Guinea worm eradication coloring book.

After treating the Guinea worm emerging from Phatpa's left foot, Lady, the village animator, helps her better understand the cycle of Guinea worm by using a Guinea worm eradication coloring book. The Carter Center leads the global campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease in the remaining endemic African countries.

A Togolese woman in a village strains her family's drinking water through a nylon filter to prevent them from contracting Guinea worm disease. In endemic countries like Togo, filtering all drinking water is a key element in eradicating Guinea worm disease.