News & Publications

The government of Norway has contributed $1.5 million to the Guinea worm eradication effort, half to The Carter Center's Global 2000 program and the other half to UNICEF, one of the project's main partners.

"Investing in people's ability to fight and contain Guinea worm is an invest-ment in the long-term development of the African region, which is a priority region for the Norwegian government," said Kari Nordheim-Larsen, minister of development cooperation. "This is an outstanding example of how scientific research and relief work go hand in hand to alleviate the plight of suffering people."

Ms. Nordheim-Larsen announced the contribution during a May briefing on the eradication project in Oslo. Attending were representatives of European governments, including Denmark, Finland, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as CARE, UNICEF, and Lions International, among others.

Former President Jimmy Carter thanked Norway's government for the timely donation, which comes less than two years before the December 1995 target date for eradication. "We are deeply grateful to the people of Norway, who have habitually supported this kind of project leading to a better life for people," he said during the briefing.

Global 2000 and its partners use a surveillance and containment strategy to help countries identify where cases occur and then focus on eradication. "The funds from Norway will be used to support case containment, use of the larvicide Abate, and other activities during the final phases of the eradica-tion campaign," said Donald Hopkins, M.D., senior health consultant for Global 2000.

He noted that momentum is building during the final phases of the campaign, spurred by successes in decreasing Guinea worm cases by more than 80 percent during the past four years in 16 endemic countries in Africa and in India and Pakistan.

More than 100 million people are at risk of the disease, contracted by ingesting water contaminated with microscopic larvae that grow into threadlike worms up to one yard long. Their painful emergence, often through an arm, leg, or foot, incapacitates its victims, keeping children from school and farmers from their fields. Villagers are learning to prevent the disease by straining their drinking water, drinking from wells, or applying Abate to their water supplies.