How is The Carter Center involved?
Health education and low-technology measures to promote behavioral change are used to prevent Guinea worm disease. The most effective way to prevent it is to filter the tiny water fleas out of drinking water. The Carter Center provides families with fine-mesh filter cloths that fit over clay pots used to hold water. Some people, especially nomadic groups, receive pipe filters, which are small straw-like personal filters that can be worn around the neck. These simple but revolutionary devices enable people to drink water safely no matter where they are.
Other important interventions include treating ponds with a safe chemical larvicide called ABATE©, donated by BASF, and constructing boreholes or deep wells.
Humans are a Guinea worm's only host, so spread of the disease can be controlled by identifying all cases and modifying human behavior to prevent it from recurring. Once all human cases are eliminated, the disease will be eradicated. Today, cases of Guinea worm disease are down more than 99% since 1986, making it poised to be the next disease after smallpox to be eradicated.
It will be the first parasitic disease to be eradicated and the first disease to be eradicated without vaccines or medicines. The only other "active" eradication campaign is against polio. The Carter Center's International Task Force for Disease Eradication has identified only seven diseases as potentially eradicable. Read more about the International Task Force for Disease Eradication.
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