The Embassy of Japan Funds Pipe Filters for the Fight to Eradicate Guinea Worm Disease in Southern Sudan

CONTACTS:

In Atlanta:
Emily Staub, The Carter Center 
Cell Phone: 251-912-144-177
Atlanta Office: 404-420-5126
Email: Emily.Staub@emory.edu

In Khartoum:
Miles Kemplay
Mobile Phone: 0912 394 843
Khartoum Office: 0183 771 745
Email: mkempla@emory.edu

In Japan:
Naohiro Hayakawa
(Embassy of Japan)
Office Phone: 0183 471 601
Email: japan_taishi@yahoo.com

KHARTOUM, Sudan… Today, the Embassy of Japan awarded funding for the Southern Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program. The contract to purchase 420,000 Guinea worm pipe filters was presented by H.E. Ambassador Yuichi Ishii to The Carter Center in the presence of H.E. Dr. Theophilus Ochang Lotti, Minister of Health, Government of Southern Sudan, Mr. Primo Celerino, Coordinator for the Ministry of Health, Government of Southern Sudan, and Dr. Nabil Aziz, National Guinea Worm Program Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Health.  Pipe filters enable people to drink water directly from the source without risk of getting infected by Guinea worm disease. 

Guinea worm disease is contracted by drinking water contaminated with microscopic water fleas carrying Guinea worm larvae. Inside a human's body, Guinea worm larvae mature and grow, some as long as 3 feet. After a year, the Guinea worm slowly emerges through an agonizingly painful blister it creates in the skin. Guinea worms can take up to two months to be completely removed, and even then, other infections may occur. Victims often immerse their limbs in water, seeking relief from the burning sensation caused by emerging Guinea worms, but in doing so, they re-contaminate drinking water with infective larvae. 

Since 1989, the Government of Japan has supported The Carter Center and its partners to eradicate Guinea worm disease. During his visit to Juba in February 2007, former U.S. President and founder of The Carter Center, Jimmy Carter, reiterated the goal to achieve eradication by the end of the decade – which would make it the first parasitic disease ever to be eradicated. During 2006 the nine remaining endemic countries reported 25,243 cases of Guinea worm disease, including 20,608 (82 percent) reported from southern Sudan. Transmission of Guinea worm disease in the northern states of Sudan was successfully halted in  2001. The pipe filters will be distributed to families and individuals in Kapoeta County, from where 12,258 (59 percent) of all cases of the disease in 2006 were reported.  The simple, straw-like devices that filter infective larvae from drinking water are an important element of a wider strategy to treat contaminated water sources and stop future contamination in order to eradicate the disease.

Sudan remains the greatest challenge to Guinea worm disease eradication; it reported 20,608 cases in 2006, a significant but expected increase from the 5,569 reported in 2005. The increase in cases followed the January 2005 peace accord between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, which has allowed health workers to reach areas previously inaccessible due to conflict. Today southern Sudan contains approximately 81percent of all remaining cases of Guinea worm disease in the world. The eradication of Guinea worm disease would represent one of the greatest public health achievements by the people of Sudan.

Further information:

For more than two decades, The Carter Center has been deeply committed to alleviating suffering in Sudan and finding ways to help bring lasting peace to the country, where a 21-year civil war has destroyed physical infrastructure and limited access to basic social services. In 1995, President Carter was able to secure a six-month cease-fire to allow for the treatment of Guinea worm and other diseases. During this time the Sudanese Ministry of Health, The Carter Center, U.N. organizations, and other nongovernmental organization staff visited 2,253 Guinea worm villages, distributed 115,425 cloth filters to households, and determined baseline prevalence of Guinea worm in southern Sudan. Additionally, this humanitarian cease-fire, the longest of its kind, enabled the interventions of other health initiatives, including river blindness control and mass vaccination for polio and measles. 

During 2006, the partnership between the Government of Southern Sudan's Ministry of Health and The Carter Center made great progress in developing a community-based disease surveillance system, for the purpose of eradicating Guinea worm disease, composed of 13,637 trained village volunteers, 896 area supervisors, 82 county field officers, and 19 technical assistants. The state ministries of health each have appointed a state Guinea worm coordinator to lead the eradication program at the state level. This impressive team is supported by a logistics network of field offices and satellite storage facilities, and overall guidance is provided by the Guinea Worm Eradication Program Secretariat, based in Juba, under the Government of Southern Sudan Ministry of Health.
 
Since 1989, the Government of Japan has supported the efforts of The Carter Center and its partners to tackle Guinea worm disease. Since 1997, The Carter Center has received funding from local embassies of the Government of Japan through the Grassroots Grants Program and Grassroots Human Security Program.

Furthermore, the Government of Japan pledged US$ 100 million for consolidation of peace in the Sudan through its official development assistance including humanitarian assistance at the Oslo Donor Conference in April 2005.  As of January 2007, including the said Grant Program, US$ 151.81 million has been already disbursed through support to U.N. agencies and NGOs, and through bilateral channels. Whereby continuing support to humanitarian, recovery and reconstruction needs in the Sudan, the Government of Japan wishes to further strengthen the existing friendly bilateral relations between Japanese and Sudanese peoples. 

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The Carter Center celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2007. A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has made tremendous contribution to improving life and alleviating human suffering in more than 65 countries around the world by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; improving mental health care; and teaching farmers to increase crop production. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. Please visithttp://www.cartercenter.org/ to learn more about The Carter Center.

(Carter Center Photo)
Young boys using pipe filters in Southern Sudan.

(Carter Center Photo)
Carter Center Resident Technical Adviser for northern Sudan Miles Kemplay (left), H.E. Ambassador Yuichi Ishii (right), and H.E. Southern Sudan Minister of Health Dr. Theophilus Ochang Lotti (center) examine a bottled Guinea worm specimen from Sennar state.

On March 11, 2007, the Embassy of Japan in Khartoum awarded funding for the Southern Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program to purchase 420,000 Guinea worm pipe filters. The filters enable people to drink water directly from the source without risk of getting infected by Guinea worm disease.