News & Publications: Carter Center Guinea Worm Eradication Program

Wrap-Up | Press Releases | Media Coverage | Articles by Experts | Stories from the Field

GUINEA WORM WRAP-UP

The Guinea Worm Wrap-Up is a report from The Carter Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and includes the latest case counts. It is provided on a near-monthly basis as data becomes available from the field.

Sign Up to Receive the Guinea Worm Wrap-Up by Email >

See all Guinea Worm Wrap-Up issues from 1983 to present, in English and French (PDF).

PRESS RELEASES

Carter Center Welcomes Gates Foundation, UAE, CIFF Funding to Achieve Guinea Worm Eradication
Jan. 30, 2012
$40 million in donations announced today from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) will enable a Carter Center-led eradication campaign to end Guinea worm disease by 2015. The Center also announced today that provisional results show only 1,060 cases of Guinea worm occurred worldwide in 2011.

Britain to Help Carter Center Secure Funding For Worldwide Eradication of Worm Disease
Oct. 5, 2011
Britain today announced it will provide major support to a new project that will make Guinea worm the second human disease ever to be eradicated in human history. Read the Blog Feature >

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Congratulates People of Ghana for Halting Guinea Worm Disease Transmission, Urges Remaining Endemic Countries to Wipe Out Ancient Affliction as Soon as Possible
July 28, 2011
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center congratulate Ghana on becoming the world's newest country to stop transmission of Guinea worm, a water-borne parasitic disease poised to be the second human disease in history to be eradicated.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Announces Three Countries Left in Guinea Worm Eradication Campaign: Nigeria and Niger Honored as Most Recent Nations to Halt Disease Transmission (En français)
Feb. 17, 2011
Former U.S. President and Carter Center Founder Jimmy Carter announced today that only three endemic countries remain in the fight against Guinea worm disease, poised to be only the second disease in history—after smallpox—to be eradicated.

Guinea Worm Eradication and River Blindness Elimination Receive Major Boost with U.S. $1 Million Donation from OPEC Fund: Signing Ceremony Takes Place at The Carter Center
Oct. 10, 2010
Today, during a special ceremony in Atlanta, former U.S. President and Carter Center Founder Jimmy Carter received on behalf of The Carter Center two new pledges—$500,000 toward the Guinea Worm Eradication Program and $500,000 toward the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA)—from the OPEC Fund for International Development, represented by His Excellency Director General Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish.

Carter Center Experts and Partners Chronicle "Nigeria's Triumph" Over Ancient Guinea Worm Disease in American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Article
Aug. 4, 2010
In the August 2010 issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, a new paper co-authored by experts from the Nigeria Ministry of Health, The Carter Center, and the World Health Organization, details Nigeria's historic triumph over many challenges to successfully eliminate the ancient waterborne plague Guinea worm disease (also known as dracunculiasis).

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Visits Last Stronghold of Guinea Worm Disease in Southern Sudan
Feb. 11, 2010
In the dusty and remote village of Molujore, Terekeka County, Southern Sudan, food shortages are common, insecurity lingers, and survival is a daily struggle. Yet, important progress is being made in the effort to wipe out Guinea worm disease, resulting in the community being singled out for a visit from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Central Equatoria State Governor Clement Wani Konga, and Commissioner Clement Maring Samuel today to urge intensification of efforts to wipe out the waterborne parasitic infection during the next transmission season beginning in April.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to View Major Progress Against Guinea Worm Disease in Sudan
Feb. 3, 2010
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, will travel to the world's most Guinea worm-endemic country—Sudan—Feb. 9-12, 2010, to personally appeal for completing eradication of the crippling waterborne parasite as soon as possible and to urge peace and stability in the nation as it prepares for its first multi-party elections in 24 years in April, which the Carter Center's international election observation team will monitor.

MEDIA COVERAGE

'Guinea Worm' Close to Extinction
Oct. 13, 2012
Published by Al Jazeera English.
A parasite that infects people called the Guinea worm can grow up to a metre in length and lives under the skin.

Eradication: Tide May Be Turning Against Guinea Worm
Oct. 10, 2012
Published by the Financial Times. Note: The Financial Times website requires that you register (for free) to access the full article.
With cases of guinea worm disease down from 3.5m in 21 countries in 1986 to a matter of hundreds in four African countries today, the near eradication of this painful and debilitating disease is being celebrated as a global health success story. However, unlike many disease eradication programmes, no drugs or immunisations were available. Progress in this fight has depended on aggressive advocacy efforts at every level of society.

A Little Effort Can Produce Great Strides
Oct. 10, 2012
Published by the Financial Times. Note: The Financial Times website requires that you register (for free) to access the full article.
From river blindness and buruli ulcer to elephantiasis, the country had plenty of health problems that affected its poorest residents. It harboured one of the largest number of cases of guinea worm outside Sudan, a disease energetically targeted for global eradication by former US president Jimmy Carter through his foundation.

Extinction by Design: Guinea Worm
Sept. 30, 2012
Published by Scientific American.
Though I could find little about the biology of rinderpest for the last post, guinea worm is a case of the opposite: Way Too Much Information. Guinea worm inspires horror not so much by its life history (many infectious organisms find ways to wander about your body at will), but by its size, Homo sapiens-escape method, and terrifying treatment.

Guinea Worm is Poised to Become the Second Human Disease to be Eradicated
Aug. 27, 2012
Published by The Washington Post.
Guinea worm disease is reaching the end of its days. The parasitic infection, which has sickened millions, mostly in Asia and Africa, is on the verge of being done in not by sophisticated medicine but by aggressive public health efforts in some of the poorest and most remote parts of the world.

Ein übler Geselle kurz vor dem Aus
July 24, 2012
Published in the German publication Spektrum.de.
Die Uhr für den Guineawurm tickt: Bald soll der üble Parasit ausgerottet sein - als zweite Krankheit nach den Pocken. Doch die letzten Meter werden schwierig.

The President and the Parasite
July 22, 2012
Published by ABC News.
Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki talks about the impending demise of Guinea Worm Disease, which looks set to follow smallpox and be eradicated completely, thanks in large part to former US president Jimmy Carter.

Guinea Worm Could Be Second Disease Wiped Off the Earth
July 19, 2012
Published by the Toronto Star.
An ancient parasite known as the "fiery serpent" is on track to be the second human disease eradicated since smallpox's demise in 1979.

Progress Toward Global Eradication of Dracunculiasis — January 2011–June 2012
Oct. 26, 2012
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol.61 No. 42
Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) is caused by Dracunculus medinensis, a parasitic worm. Approximately 1 year after initial infection from contaminated drinking water, the worm emerges through the skin of the infected person, usually on the lower limb. Pain and secondary bacterial wound infection can cause temporary or permanent disability that disrupts work and schooling for the entire family.

Dracunculiasis Eradication and the Legacy of the Smallpox Campaign: What's New and Innovative? What's Old and Principled? [Presented at the Symposium on Smallpox Eradication: Lessons, Legacies & Innovations]
Dec. 18, 2011
This article was online on Dec. 18, 2011 in Vaccine. Online signup is required to read the full article.
Coming on the heels the declaration of smallpox eradication in 1980 was the launch of the dracunculiasis (Guinea worm) eradication program, as a key outcome indicator of the success of the United Nations 1981-1990 International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (IDWSSD). The dracunculiasis eradication campaign has carried on well beyond the close of the IDWSSD largely due to the efforts of President Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center, to assist the national Guinea Worm Eradication Programs in collaboration with partner organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, and the World Health Organization. Dracunculiasis eradication efforts have as primary tools health education, filter distribution for drinking water filtration, and case containment, all guided by rigorous village based surveillance.

Progress Toward Global Eradication of Dracunculiasis, January 2010 - June 2011
Oct. 28, 2011
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 60 / No. 42.
In 1986, the World Health Assembly (WHA) called for the elimination of dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease), a parasitic infection in humans caused by Dracunculus medinensis (1). At the time, an estimated 3.5 million cases were occurring annually in 20 countries in Africa and Asia, and 120 million persons were at risk for the disease (1,2).

Looking to the Future in Sudan: Dr. Donald R. Hopkins' Letter to the Editor, The New York Times
Jan. 15, 2011
This letter sent Jan. 11, 2011, by Carter Center Health Programs Vice President Donald R. Hopkins, M.D., M.P.H., is in response to an editorial published Jan. 8, 2011, by The New York Times.
"Southern Sudan Votes" (editorial, Jan. 8) rightly notes that the government of southern Sudan has "set up more than two dozen ministries and built schools and roads" since the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement in 2005.

Read more Articles by Carter Center Experts >>

STORIES FROM THE FIELD: REAL LIVES REAL CHANGE

Salissou Kane: Niger's Trachoma Control Campaign Employs Lessons Learned in Guinea Worm Fight
Jan. 23, 2012
Completely eliminating a disease from a country twice the size of Texas is no easy task. Salissou Kane, the Carter Center's country representative for Niger learned this time and again during more than two decades fighting Guinea worm in his homeland. Now that the disease has been wiped out nationwide, Kane is using his hard-won knowledge of Niger's complex multicultural communities to tackle to the bacterial eye disease trachoma.

Building Better Lives, Brick by Brick
Jan. 3, 2012
The Carter Center works in some of the world's most remote and impoverished communities. These are areas beyond where the road ends, with no power grid, and limited access to outside markets. For health workers striving to eliminate Guinea worm disease in South Sudan, this means many essential items, like building supplies for a new case containment center, are virtually non-existent. However, with a little ingenuity, the staff members of the South Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program are blazing their own path, and building the bricks needed for success.

Sadi Moussa: Public Health Worker Begins Third Decade of Improving Lives, Battling Guinea Worm and Trachoma in Mali
Aug. 5, 2011
"I think I have something to share with another country" says Sadi Moussa, explaining why he recently relocated to Mali to help tackle public health problems after almost two decades doing similar work in his home country of Niger.

Thon Mayom: Case Containment Center Offers Hope, Relief for Boy
May 1, 2011
At bedtime, under a blue mosquito net, two boys lie on a mat and whisper secrets from the day just passed. Six-year-old Thon Mayom falls asleep quickly. He is exhausted from two sessions that day to treat a worm emerging from his knee. His 5-year-old brother, Mawut, drifts off to sleep too. His job is to look after his big brother during the difficult treatment.

Nomadic Groups Pose Challenge in Push to Eliminate Guinea Worm Disease From Southern Sudan (Video Feature)
June 21, 2010
The lives of an estimated 70 percent of the people living in Southern Sudan are intrinsically entwined with their cattle.

Guinea Worm Eradication Efforts Gain Further Momentum With Significant Case Reductions in 2009
May 17, 2010
The Carter Center-led drive to eradicate Guinea worm disease gained significant momentum in 2009, with an all-time low of 3,190 total cases reported – a 31 percent decrease from 2008.