Jimmy Carter

Place: Savelugu, Ghana
Date: Feb. 8, 2007
Credit: Louise Gubb/The Carter Center

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter comforts six-year-old Ruhama Issah at Savelugu Hospital Feb. 8 as Adams Bawa, a Carter Center technical assistant, dresses her extremely painful Guinea worm wound.

To end the social and economic consequences associated with this horrific disease, The Carter Center spearheads the international Guinea worm eradication campaign. Since 1986, Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis) has been reduced by more than 99 percent. Today, The Carter Center and its partners, in collaboration with thousands of dedicated community health workers, continue to intensify efforts to fight the last fraction of 1 percent of Guinea worm disease. Thanks to this work, Guinea worm is poised to be the next disease eradicated and will be the first to be overcome without a vaccine or medicine.

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