GOOD News: Good Riddance, Guinea Worm

Tags:: Good News Roger Numbers Jimmy Carter Center Guinea Worms Africa Health Ghana Sudan

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By: RogerNumbers
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Updated: 20-Feb-09
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International
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Added: 10-Dec-08

GOOD first reported on the Carter Center's campaign to eradicate the guinea worm in our September/October 2008 issue. Guinea worm disease is a particularly gruesome malady in which a water-born parasite grows inside the human body and then burrows its way out through the skin. The good news is that, thanks to a health education campaign spearheaded by the Carter Center and made possible through partnerships with the WHO, the Gates Foundation, and the UK government, the disease is poised to be completely eradicated by 2010, making it only the second disease (following smallpox) to be eliminated from the earth.

(Footage courtesy of the Carter Center.)