Thanks to Jimmy Carter, Guinea Worm Disease is on the Verge of Extinction

Barack Obama’s Kenyan roots make him the American president we Kenyans are most proud of, but the one we are most thankful for is Jimmy Carter.

Carter helped rid Kenya of Guinea worm disease (dracunculus medinensis), a rarely fatal but gruesome condition caused by the parasitical Guinea worm, which can grow up to three feet long inside the body. The skin lesions the worm creates are so debilitating that infected people can miss school or work for up to two months.