“That was almost better than (winning) the Nobel Prize.”
Flashing his signature toothy grin Wednesday morning, former President Jimmy Carter recalled a visit to Nigeria some years back. It was in conjunction with The Carter Center's now three decades-old campaign to eradicate the debilitating Guinea worm disease from the world. As his motorcade made its way toward a remote village, Carter said, he noticed an elementary school child on the side of the road holding up a big sign.
“(It) said, ‘Watch out Guinea worm, here comes Jimmy Carter!’” he chuckled.
Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were doing a walk-through of the exhibition, "Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease," which officially opened at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta on Wednesday. Created by the American Museum of Natural History in collaboration with The Carter Center, the multimedia exhibition, which runs through Oct. 9, uses colorful photos, video and artifacts to provide a fascinating lens on global efforts to fight disease and infections.
In some of the toughest places on earth to do so.
"About a billion folks who live in probably the poorest communities on earth still suffer from neglected tropical diseases," Carter, 92, said at a press conference Wednesday. "Emphasis on 'neglected.' In the past, these diseases have basically been ignored by the developed world." (AJC staff writer Chris Quinn had an exclusive interview with Carter Wednesday about his disease-fighting work and his own health. Read it here.)
Indeed, The Carter Center has long been at the forefront of this fight — most notably, by leading the international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease since 1986, when an estimated 3.5 million cases occurred annually in 21 African and Asian countries. But in 2016, press conference attendees were told, the total number of reported human cases was down to 25 in just three countries — Chad, South Sudan and Ethiopia.
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To Rosalynn Carter, 89, “Countdown to Zero” was a vivid reminder of all the human faces and stories behind those numbers. At one point, she recalled how language barriers were overcome in some places by using cartoon-like drawings to deliver important health education and intervention messages.
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“When you go to a country or village where there used to be Guinea worm, but it’s not there anymore, it does something for your soul,” the former first lady of Georgia and the United States said softly. “Of all the things I’ve ever done … There’s no way to describe it.”
"Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease." Jan. 11 - Oct. 9. 9 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. Mondays - Saturdays, Noon - 4:45 p.m. Sundays. Jimmy Carter Presidental Library and Museum, 441 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta. Cost (price of museum admission): $8 adults, seniors, military and students $6, ages 16 and under free. 404-865-7100, www.cartercenter.org.
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