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

A Monthly Publication from The Carter Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Current and archived 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 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

Jimmy Carter's Successful War Against Tropical Diseases
April 23, 2012
Published by The Globe and Mail.
One of the most exclusive clubs on Earth is that of living ex-U.S. presidents. The gang of four – Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton and George W. Bush – spend their retirement years hitting the links, building presidential libraries, giving $100,000 speeches, writing autobiographies and doing humanitarian work.

Atlantans on Verge of Eradicating Worm Disease
April 20, 2012
Published by WXIA-TV.
Soon, perhaps within a year or two, headlines around the world will flash news of historic magnitude – news that a crippling disease that afflicts children and adults has been eradicated, wiped off the face of the earth.

Local Impact: Moving Mountains to Prevent Disease (PDF)
April 19, 2012
Published in Emory Public Health by the Rollins School of Public Health, a component of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University (emoryhealthsciences.org).
Every day, Rollins students and alumni are building public health capacity throughout the nonprofit sector in Atlanta and across the state. Moses Katabarwa and Adam Weiss are health leaders at the Carter Center, one of Rollins' public health partners in the Atlanta community.

Neglected Tropical Diseases: The World's Nastiest Illnesses Get Some Belated Attention
Feb. 4, 2012
Published Feb. 4, 2012, by The Economist.
GLOBAL health campaigns like grand goals. On January 30th Bill Gates joined the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), 13 drug-company executives and others in pledging to eradicate or control by 2020 ten of the world's nastiest diseases, which afflict more than a billion people. Guinea worm, sleeping sickness, bilharzia (which doctors call schistosomiasis) and the others rot tissue and cripple the organs. Even if they do not kill, they stunt children and sap adults' energies.

Grace: Nigeria's Last Case of Guinea Worm
Feb. 1, 2012
Published Feb. 1, 2012, by KPLU.
After my first visit to Nigeria in 2001, when I saw more than my fair share of guinea worm infections, I returned to Nigeria for a book project I claimed to be working on. It was 2009 and I was a freelancer.

How Jimmy Carter Became a Serpent Slayer and Global Health Pioneer
Feb. 1, 2012
Published Feb. 1, 2012, by KPLU.
Former President Jimmy Carter is in Seattle, having spoken last night at the World Affairs Council's 60th anniversary celebration and speaking today at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation about Guinea worm.

Carter Center Gets $40M to Eradicate Guinea Worm
Jan. 30, 2012
Associated Press article appeared on Huffington Post, Boston Globe, MiamiHerald.com, and over 200 news outlets.
The Carter Center on Monday announced it received $40 million in donations to help fuel its mission to eradicate Guinea worm disease, a debilitating parasite that once plagued millions of people across the developing world.

Web Extra: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Tell Piers Morgan About Their Goal of Eradicating Guinea Worm
Jan. 20, 2012
CNN
Only one infectious disease has ever been eradicated: smallpox. But thanks largely to the efforts of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, the former president told Piers Morgan that guinea worm will soon be the second. "We found 3-and-a-half million cases of guinea worm still existing, and now we have less than a thousand cases, so we'll soon eliminate guinea worm from the face of the earth," said Carter.

The Guardian: Jimmy Carter Spearheads Final Drive to Eradicate Guinea Worm Disease
Oct. 5, 2011
Read full media coverage of the Oct. 5, 2011, announcement >

Fresh Push to Rid the World of Guinea Worm by 2015
Oct. 5, 2011
BBC
The U.K. government is backing a new campaign to try to rid the world of Guinea worm by 2015.

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.

Emergence of Onchocerca Volvulus From Skin Mimicking Dracunculiasis Medinensis (PDF)
Nov. 1, 2010
Reprinted with permission from the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 83(6), 2010, pp. 1348-1351. Authors: Mark L. Eberhard, Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben, Andrew S. Korkor, Sharon L. Roy, and Philip Downs. We describe 11 cases of suspected Dracunculus medinensis infection in which the worm recovered was identified as Onchocerca volvulus. Identification was based on morphology of the examined specimen.

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.