Jimmy Carter's Guinea Worm Eradication Project

[waltky]

Guinea worm cases decline...

Wars and Dogs Complicate WHO's Bid to Kill Off Guinea Worm
November 02, 2016 — The World Health Organization's battle to eradicate Guinea worm is being hampered by conflict and infections in dogs but cases have fallen to just 17 so far in 2016, the doctor leading the fight told Reuters on Wednesday.

The debilitating parasite afflicted 3.5 million people 30 years ago, but is now endemic in only four countries: South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia and Mali. "Globally, we have never been so close to Guinea worm eradication as now," Dieudonne Sankara said. "It will be a colossal achievement." Victory over the worm, which grows up to a meter long before emerging through the skin and which lays its eggs in water, has been repeatedly delayed. But Mali has had no cases this year, while South Sudan has had five, Ethiopia two and Chad 10.

Ajak Kuol Nyamchiek watches while John Lotiki, a nurse with the Carter Center, bandages blisters on her leg from where a Guinea worm is emerging, Abuyong, Sudan

Although the decline in the global number of cases has leveled off, one worm can cause 80 new cases after its incubation period of 10-14 months, so keeping cases low signals the battle is being won. But the security situation in the endemic countries is a complicating factor, as health workers and volunteers often venture hundreds of kilometers into lawless areas, said Ashok Moloo, a WHO information officer. Another challenge was the discovery that dogs — mainly around the Chari river in Chad, but also in the other countries — were picking up Guinea worm infections, too.

That required a new fight, to control the disease among the dog population. In 2015, more than 500 dogs in Chad, 13 in Ethiopia, and one each in Mali and South Sudan, were reported with emerging Guinea worms. Moloo said WHO was optimistic that the dog problem had peaked, although the incubation period meant it was premature to be sure, and the new challenges were unexpected. "People warned us a few years ago: 'You're moving fast, but you will see,'" Sankara said. "And now we are seeing."

http://www.voanews.com/a/wars-dogs-c...m/3576677.html

[MRogersNhood]

One has to wonder sometimes if waltky is a hypochondriac typing from a sterile room.

[Standing Wolf]

"Don't look at me. I had nothing to do with it."

[waltky]

Jimmy Carter makin' progress against Guinea worm...

Former President Carter Highlights Success in Guinea Worm Eradication
January 12, 2017 — When former President Jimmy Carter announced he was battling cancer in an August 2015 news conference at his Atlanta-based nonprofit Carter Center, he shared that one of his hopes was that the last Guinea worm would be eradicated before he died. "I still have the same hope," Carter told VOA in an exclusive interview at the Carter Center, almost 17 months after his cancer announcement.

He is still focused on promoting the fight against Guinea worm, also known as dracunculiasis, a neglected tropical parasitic disease that as recently as the 1980s afflicted millions of people in 21 countries. It is transmitted by drinking water that is contaminated with microscopic larvae that carry the parasite. The worm matures in the human body over the course of a year. Once mature, the worm, sometimes as long as one meter, slowly emerges through blisters on the skin, generating intense pain for those infected. "They afflict people in the poorest and most isolated places in the world," Carter told an audience gathered at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum on Wednesday, during an unveiling of its newest exhibit "Countdown to Zero," a look at disease elimination and eradication programs produced in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History.

The Carter Center also has released its annual update on global Guinea worm eradication numbers. In 2016, three countries reported cases of Guinea worm — South Sudan, Ethiopia and Chad. A fourth country, Mali, which had cases of the disease in 2015, is reported to be free of the parasite for the first time. "It means you've had a 25 percent reduction in the number of countries reporting cases," said Frank Richards, who heads several of the Carter Center's eradication and elimination programs. While the eradication effort now focuses on those three countries where the parasite remains, the overall number of cases has slightly increased. "The difference between 22 cases last year and 25 cases this year is trivial," said Donald Hopkins, former director of the Carter Center's health programs and an expert on disease eradication.

Ajak Kuol Nyamchiek watches while John Lotiki, a nurse with the Carter Center, bandages blisters on her leg from where a Guinea worm is emerging, Abuyong, Sudan

But the challenge that remains is reaching and maintaining a presence in those villages where the parasite is still infecting unsuspecting hosts. "When you get to the final numbers of cases, generally they are in the places that are the most difficult to reach," Richards explained, "either because of remoteness or insecurity and instability, and Mali is one of those examples, as is South Sudan." "Those last few cases in any eradication program are always the most severely problematic," Carter told VOA.

Carter’s health

As the Carter Center's global fight against Guinea worm wages on, so does his battle with cancer. "I'm doing fine, I'm much better than I was when we had the press conference here," he told CNN's Sanjay Gupta during a panel discussion on eradication efforts in the Carter Center's auditorium. "I had cancer in my liver, part of it that was removed, and I had four spots on my brain that were malignant. I get another MRI tomorrow, but so far my brain and liver have been clear of the disease."

Former President Jimmy Carter talks to the media during a press event at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia

While his battle with cancer appears successful, Carter is mindful that even if his hope of outliving the last Guinea worm isn't realized, he is confident the Carter Center and its partners will reach the goal of complete eradication. "I'm not looking forward to not being here," he told VOA, through his signature grin, "but I think when I'm gone, the effort will not be abandoned, it will be continued, maybe with an even greater degree of enthusiasm because it would be in my memory and that sort of thing. So I don't feel concerned about the future." Of the effort, Richards told VOA, "I think it's in our human DNA to reach a supreme accomplishment, and this is the supreme accomplishment in public health."

http://www.voanews.com/a/former-pres...n/3674066.html

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Mali Eradicates Guinea Worm
January 11, 2017 — Mali has eliminated Guinea worm disease, bringing the world a step closer to eradicating the debilitating parasitic disease, the U.S.-based Carter Center said, citing provisional government figures.

Guinea worm infections afflicted 3.5 million people 30 years ago but are now endemic only in South Sudan, Chad and Ethiopia, where there were 16 reported cases last year, according to the organization set up by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn. Jimmy Carter, 92, has made the fight against the disease, for which there is no vaccine or medical treatment, a cornerstone of his organization's work. "The progress we have seen in restricting Guinea worm disease to these few cases in only three countries is testament to the dedication of people in endemic areas to caring for their health and that of their communities," said Dean Sienko, the Carter Center's vice president of health programs.

A Guinea worm is extracted from a child's foot at a containment center in Savelugu, Ghana

Guinea worm disease is spread by drinking unboiled, stagnant water containing the larvae. The worms can grow up to a meter long before emerging through the host's skin; those afflicted with the disease suffer fevers, blisters and extreme pain when the worms emerge. The Carter Center said the disease is being wiped out through community programs that show people how to filter drinking water and prevent contamination.

Although the global number of cases has declined, one worm can cause 80 new cases after its incubation period of 10 to 14 months, so keeping cases low signals the battle is being won. The World Health Organization has said the battle to eradicate Guinea worm is being hampered by insecurity; health workers and volunteers often must venture hundreds of miles into lawless areas in countries where the disease is endemic. Another challenge is that dogs — mainly in Chad, but also in the other countries — are picking up Guinea worm infections, too.

http://www.voanews.com/a/mali-eradic...m/3672621.html

[waltky]

Guinea worm is contracted when people drink contaminated water...

Research Reveals Huge Burden of Guinea Worm
April 11, 2017 — Guinea worm is on course to become the second human disease to be eradicated, after smallpox, thanks largely to intervention overseen by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Little was known about the infection for decades, as diseases like malaria took priority. However, previously unpublished research from the 1970s, released this month, shows the burden the disease has had on millions of people.

Guinea worm is contracted when people drink water contaminated with tiny crustaceans that contain the worm larvae. A year later, a meter-long female worm emerges through a painful blister, often disabling the infected person for months. Professor Brian Greenwood, a British scientist, first came across Guinea worm in the 1970s when working in northern Nigeria. He says little was known about the disease, despite millions suffering from it across Africa and India. "People were much more concerned with malaria, bilharzia and other tropical infections," Greenwood said. "And part of the reason was that these people were so disabled they never got to the clinic or the hospital. So that if you looked in hospital records, you did not see this as a big problem."

A young herder in Kuse Dam, Southern Sudan, uses a pipe filter provided by The Carter Center to strain out infective Guinea worm larvae from the water while drinking

Greenwood spent four years studying the disease and trying to find out why sufferers often developed repeat infections, without developing immunity. "We extracted some of the worms," he said. "And the traditional way is winding them out on a matchstick, just gradually. And the problem is that if the worm then snapped inside, then they got a very severe reaction. "Greenwood credits the Carter Center, a charitable foundation set up by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, for helping fight the disease to the brink of eradication. There is no vaccine or treatment. Instead, community education programs teach people to filter drinking water and avoid entering water sources.

Speaking in 2011, Carter described the initial difficulties. "It was kind of an insult to say 'this disease comes out of your pond,'" he said. "So we have had to do a lot of diplomacy and convincing the people there to take care of their own problems. Well, it has worked. And now almost every nation on earth has eradicated or eliminated Guinea worm." When the Carter Center first became involved in 1986, there were around 3.5 million cases in 21 countries; last year, 25 cases were recorded in only three countries — Chad, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

A girl grimaces as a health worker extracts a parasitic worm from her at a containment center in Savelugu, Ghana.

Greenwood's early study of Guinea worm remained unpublished, as he was directed to focus on malaria and meningitis instead; but last year in London, he met Carter, who persuaded him to publish the research. "I hope that we have been able to document what a horrible disease this was," Greenwood said. "And it is really important that people realize that. And if we do get eradication in the next year or two, which I hope will be the case, that this will not just be seen as a minor thing, but to be a really very important public health triumph." The last few cases of Guinea worm remain because they are the most difficult to reach. Many are in conflict areas like South Sudan, but scientists are optimistic this ancient disease can be eradicated within the next few years.

http://www.voanews.com/a/research-re...m/3806000.html

[waltky]

Ol' Jimmy will be pleased...

South Sudan Eliminates Guinea Worm
March 21, 2018 - Guinea worm disease in South Sudan has been brought to a halt, says the country’s health minister.

Dr. Riek Gai Kok made the announcement Wednesday at the Carter Center headquarters in the southern U.S. state of Georgia, noting zero cases of Guinea worm disease have been reported in the country for the past 15 months. “We don’t have the illusion that the job is finished,” Kok said. “We are not going to be complacent, we are going to redouble our efforts to step up our surveillance programs.” Health workers began a campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease in southern Sudan in 2005 after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between Sudan and South Sudan.

A woman points to her toe from where, she said, three worms emerged in 2009 when she was infected with Guinea worm in her town of Terekeka, South Sudan

South Sudan’s health minister says the accomplishment would not have been possible without the partnership between South Sudan’s health ministry and the Carter Center, named after former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, which the minister credits with setting up infrastructures and programs to rid the country of the disease. “And to us as South Sudanese, we feel we have contributed to the common cause of humanity, of our day today, that we have played our part of realizing that dream of eradicating and ridding the world of this debilitating disease called the Guinea worm,” Kok said.


Guinea worm disease is contracted when people drink contaminated water that has the Guinea worm larve, which then grows inside the host’s body. Eventually, the adult female erupts through the person’s skin, causing painful blisters. Over 20,000 cases of Guinea worm were reported in southern Sudan in 2006. By 2016, the number of cases had fallen to six. The Carter Center says community-based interventions, including educating people on the disease and promoting the use of filtered water, helped eradicate the disease in South Sudan. Guinea worm disease is believed to be nearing complete eradication. Chad and Ethiopia were the only other countries that reported Guinea worm cases in 2017.


https://www.voanews.com/a/south-suda...m/4309020.html