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The former president began fighting the disease in 1986, when it affected 3.5 million people worldwide.
Guinea worm infections fell to more than a dozen worldwide last year, bringing former President Jimmy Carter’s dream closer to fulfilling his dream of completely eradicating the disease throughout his life.
The Carter Center reported Wednesday that there were only 14 human cases Guinea worm diseases were reported throughout 2021, the result of years of public health campaigns to improve access to safe drinking water in Africa. It can be done by people who drink contaminated water ingestion of parasites that it can grow up to a meter (three feet) long before it comes out of the skin.
Carter and his wife, an Atlanta-based center founded by Rosalynn, said the remaining infections occurred in only four sub-Saharan African countries; Chad, Sudan, Angola and Cameroon.
This is almost a half-year decline from the previous year, when 27 cases were reported in seven African countries. And there has been a dramatic decline since the Carter Center began its efforts to eradicate it worldwide in 1986, when the parasitic disease infected 3.5 million people. Carter, 97, has done one of his many roles in eradicating the disease.
“To say that we have only 14 human beings on the planet of nearly eight billion people is a tremendous journey for the Guinea worm program,” Adam Weiss, director of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program at The Carter Center, told the Associated Press.
Guinea worms in animals such as dogs and cats, for example, fell by 45 per cent last year compared to 2020. That’s important, Weiss said, because infected pets and pets can play a role in transmitting the disease to people.
Guinea worms affect some of the most vulnerable people in the world, and can be prevented by training people to filter and drink clean water.
The meter-long worm is incubated in people for a year before it develops pain, often through the feet or other sensitive parts of the body.
The Guinea worm is not inherently deadly. But according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is a painful and debilitating disease that can leave infected people unable to work until the emerging worm is removed, a slow process that can take weeks.
The Carter Center was able to keep up the fight against the parasite, despite the temporary disruption it caused Covid-19 Pandemic, said Weiss.
“We had some interruptions in surveillance, but after COVID-19 outbreaks or insecurities appeared, the teams were able to re-enter the areas and community members continued to monitor and verified that all reports were true,” he said.
The only human disease that has been successfully eradicated is smallpox.
The World Health Organization has warned that other cases could be the most difficult to control, as they usually occur in remote and often inaccessible areas.
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