News & Publications

Guinea Worm Eradication Program - In The News

26 September 2008
Killing the Worm
Published in GOOD Magazine, Issue 012, pages 106-115.
Disease eradication hasn't had a success since smallpox in 1979. Now, Guinea worm disease—in which a three-foot long worm burrows through its victim's body—is holding out in just a few African countries. The quest to wipe it out is slow and controversial, but the finish line is in sight.

23 August 2008
Financial Times Feature:  The Worm That Turned Back
Posted with permission of The Financial Times.
When Makoy Samuel Yibi Logora was growing up in a village in southern Sudan, no one there knew what caused Guinea worm. But they certainly understood its effects. The skin swells and becomes infected as a thin white parasitic worm takes several weeks to emerge slowly, agonisingly, through a huge blister.

10 May 2008
Donald R Hopkins: Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease
This article was published in the May 10, 2008 edition of The Lancet. Online signup is required to read the full article.
Disease eradication has proven to be a rare and maddeningly elusive goal for global-health experts over the years. Despite Herculean attempts to abolish malaria, yellow fever, polio, and other scourges, only the smallpox campaign has been completely successful. But now efforts to eliminate Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis) look likely to succeed. One man has been on the front lines of both successful eff orts: Carter Center Vice President for Health Programs Donald R Hopkins.

31 March 2008
A Village Woman's Legacy (PDF)
This article was published in the Mar. 31, 2008 edition of TIME magazine.
An encounter with the victim of an old scourge gave a former President a new worldview—and a mission.

28 November 2007
Carter Center Expert Donald Hopkins Receives Prestigious Fries Prize for Guinea Worm Eradication Leadership
Poised to be the first parasitic disease eradicated in human history, Guinea worm disease now teeters on the verge of extinction. The 2007 Fries Prize for Improving Health was bestowed on Donald R. Hopkins, M.D., M.P.H., Carter Center vice president for health programs, for his sustained leadership in the global campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis), a debilitating parasitic infection contracted from drinking contaminated water.

24 October 2007
Persistence Pays Off in Guinea Worm Fight (PDF)
©2007 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of J.A.M.A.
Last February, when Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben, Ph.D., accompanied former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his staff to Savelugu, Ghana, they were greeted with a heart-wrenching sight. More than 300 people, mostly children, flocked to a makeshift dracunculiasis clinic, hoping to obtain relief for pain so intense that the ancient Egyptians had called it a fiery serpent.

22 June 2007
New England Journal of Medicine Feature: The Tail End of Guinea Worm — Global Eradication without a Drug or a Vaccine
The New England Journal of Medicine's June 21 issue features, " The Tail End of Guinea Worm — Global Eradication without a Drug or a Vaccine," by  Michele Barry, M.D.,  and includes four PowerPoint photo and data presentations.


22 June 2007
New England Journal of Medicine: Interview with Jimmy Carter and Donald Hopkins on the Near-Eradication of Guinea Worm Disease
Supplement to: Barry M. The Tail End of Guinea Worm — Global Eradication without a Drug or a Vaccine. N Engl J Med 2007;356(25):2561-4.

12 May 2007
Chicago Tribune Feature: Doctor Without Borders
In a dusty, open-air treatment center in Savelugu, Ghana, where patients are crying in pain, Dr. Donald R. Hopkins once again meets his enemy: Guinea worm disease.


10 May 2007
Chicago Tribune Three-Part Video Feature: Lifting the Guinea Worm Curse
This feature contains three separate videos, "Still Inflicting Pain," "The Worm Killer," and "Front Line of Care."


4 April 2007
Case Studies in Global Health: Millions Saved
Written by Ruth Levine, Ph.D, Case Studies in Global Health: Millions Saved highlights 20 original public health large-scale success cases. The Guinea worm disease eradication campaign and river blindness control campaign are featured chapters in the book.


16 March 2007
Associated Press: Tough Fight in Final Struggle to Eradicate 'Fiery Serpents' That Plagued Israelites
Savelugu, Ghana – The little girl screams in pain and convulsively reaches for the hand inflicting the torture -- the hand slowly drawing a thin, white worm from her blistered foot.

3 March 2007
National Public Radio: Stamping Out Guinea Worm (PDF)
Guinea worm disease, long gone from the developed world, continues to persist in poorer nations. Now, a relentless effort to eradicate it in Nigeria is close to success. Soon, with help from U.S. donors, the Nigerian government and local health workers, guinea worm may be a problem of the past.

18 February 2007
New York Times Feature: Torture By Worms
Presidents are supposed to be strong, and on his latest visit to Africa Jimmy Carter proved himself strong enough to weep. Click here for official reprint (PDF).

1 Jul 2006
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Editorial: Slaying Little Dragons: Lessons From The Dracunculiasis Eradication Program [PDF]
The word dracunculiasis comes from the Latin phrase "afflicted with little dragons." The global Dracunculiasis Eradication Program (DEP) spearheaded by President Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center has quietly "inched" towards world eradication with stunning success.


26 Mar 2006
New York Times Feature on Guinea Worm Disease: Dose of Tenacity Wears Down A Horrific Disease
"Dose of Tenacity Wears Down a Horrific Disease" by Donald G. McNeil Jr. is the second in The New York Times "On the Brink" series of articles about five diseases — polio, Guinea worm, measles, blinding trachoma and lymphatic filariasis — that are extinct in the developed world but stubbornly persistent in some poor nations. As the diseases hover on the brink of eradication, doctors and scientists face daunting obstacles as they struggle to finish the job.


14 Dec 2005
Health Magazine Profiles Center Staffer's Efforts in War-Torn Sudan 
The stories of five women--including Kelly Callahan--who traveled to the epicenter of human suffering in an effort to lend their support.


1 Nov 2005
National Geographic Guinea Worm Feature: The End of a Scourge?
Feature article from November 2005 issue of National Geographic.


27 Jul 2004
To The Source: Guinea Worm Eradication in Africa
Feature article from Emory Magazine, Summer 2004, by Paige Parvin. Photos by Annemarie Poyo.


1 Apr 2003
Guinea Worm Feature: Humanitarian Affairs Review
The Guinea worm parasite causes devastating disease, with far reaching consequences for development. But eradication, even in many remote regions, is within reach. Roger Phillips, Nigeria Program Consultant at The Carter Center, describes how basic hygiene and larvicide are putting end to suffering.


1 Mar 2004
Africa Today Feature:  Guinea Worm Eradication in Ghana
All hands to the plough, the dream of former US President Jimmy Carter to bury the last Ghanaian Guinea worm in one of the fanciful Accra caskets may well be realised very soon.