Guinea worm disease may have a final target on its back.
Former President Jimmy Carter will join World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan in London Wednesday to announce a major new fund-raising campaign to eradicate the waterborne parasitic disease, of which fewer than 1,800 cases remain. All of those cases are in Africa.
The Atlanta-based Carter Center has been on the forefront of fighting the disease around the world.
The British government is pledging about $32 million over four years to back a final push to wipe out the disease before 2015. It plans to leverage other donors to step in with additional funding.
The British support for the Carter Center's work will focus on teaching people how to avoid the disease and helping fund projects for clean drinking water and safe sanitation.
If this offensive works, Guinea worm would be the first disease to be eradicated without the use of a vaccine or medicine and the second human disease to be eradicated, after smallpox.
In a statement, Carter praised the British government's help in fighting the painful disease, which he said has "horrendous consequences for sufferers in terms of their immediate health and in terms of their education and employment."
The disease is transmitted through drinking water contaminated with microscopic Guinea worm larvae. A spaghetti-like worm emerges from the afflicted person's body through a blister in the skin about a year after they drink contaminated water.
"There is a tremendous tradition in the United Kingdom towards helping those around the world who are less fortunate than our own citizens, and our government remains strongly committed to grow our foreign aid budget even at this time of national austerity," said Annabelle Malins, the British consul general in Atlanta.
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