Fighting Disease:  Uganda

Eradicating Guinea Worm

Current Status: Transmission Stopped, July 2003 (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 >

Invited by the Ugandan government, The Carter Center began working in 1991 with the Ministry of Health to establish one of the first African Guinea worm eradication programs. When the first active search was conducted, more than 120,000 cases of this debilitating and painful disease were found in more than 2,600 villages in 17 districts in the northern half of the country. The areas most severely affected by Guinea worm were three northeastern districts: Kitgum, Moroto, and Kotido. 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, which causes severe itching, eye damage, and often blindness, can be prevented through health education and Mectizan® distribution. 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 on the River Blindness Program in Uganda, read the latest issue of Eye of the Eagle >

In Uganda, onchocerciasis – also known as river blindness – affects 32 out of 111 districts. Onchocerciasis control in Uganda began in 1991 and was based on annual, mass treatment with Mectizan. The original Ministry of Health program enjoyed financial support from the River Blindness Foundation and SightSavers International. In 1996, The Carter Center assumed the activities of the River Blindness Foundation. In 1997, the African Program for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) began supporting some Ugandan efforts and introduced the community-directed approach to distribution of Mectizan® (ivermectin, donated by Merck). Read full text > 

Increasing Food Production

The Carter Center also worked in Uganda to promote food security in the nation. Led by Nobel Prize Peace winner Dr. Norman Borlaug until his death in 2009, the agricultural development work was a joint venture between the Center's Global 2000 Program and the Sasakawa Africa Association. 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. In Uganda, the main objectives of the program were to improve cultivation of maize and the elimination of varieties of cassava that are susceptible to the cassava mosaic virus. A staple food, cassava crops have been devastated by this virus that has blighted extensive farmland in Uganda.

The program was so successful it enabled Uganda to help other less fortunate nations. For example, in 2002, three consecutive seasons of large maize crops had kept the price of corn affordable. This abundance was beneficial to many Ugandans who began to enjoy increased food availability for home consumption. However, maize farmers were harmed by deflation in the value of their produce. Thus, the government took action by forming a grain traders' association. The association successfully exported more than 40,000 tons of excess maize to famine-stricken countries in southern Africa, such as Zambia and Malawi. Read full
text >