Worm disease almost eradicated

Former President Jimmy Carter and partners working with the Carter Center say they have nearly eradicated a parasite-borne disease that 3.5 million people were suffering from 22 years ago.

There are estimated to be fewer than 5,000 cases of Guinea worm disease left in six African countries, Carter told a crowd gathered in Atlanta Friday morning. Two new grants will go toward the goal of completely wiping out the disease.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation promised $8 million and another $32 million in matching grants. The United Kingdom promised $15 million.

If Guinea worm is eradicated, it will be the second known disease to be eliminated from humans. The other was smallpox.

“Key heroes have been the local villagers,” Carter said.

The disease, caused by a worm, comes from drinking water infected with larvae. Educating people to filter water before drinking, drilling wells for clean water and treating infected water with chemicals eliminates contagion. Filter materials have been given out, along with drinking straws with built-in filters that are worn around the neck on a string. Health workers from countries and international groups such as the World Health Organization have helped local leaders adopt the new methods for drinking clean water.

“Once we eliminate it from a particular water hole, it is gone forever,” Carter said.

Craig Withers, director of program support at the center, said erasing the final cases will be tough but believes it will be accomplished. Some of the areas where the disease remain are unstable, such as Sudan, but the 2005 peace accord that brought an end to civil war there has created new opportunities.

“Two years ago, they had 20,000 cases,” Withers said.

That dropped 70 percent last year, he said.

People are eager to eliminate it from their villages because those who are infected suffer horribly, he said. The ingested larvae make their way into body tissue and when mature they erupt from the skin, causing pain, swelling and a chance of infection.

Also this week, GlaxoSmithKline gave $250,000 to the Carter Center to help launch a program in Ethiopia to fight lymphatic filariasis, known commonly as elephantiasis. It is a parasite-based disease that causes extreme swelling of infected body parts.