Former US president and anti-disease campaigner Jimmy Carter has recently announced that the Guinea worm disease may be eliminated within two years. This would only be the second time in human history when a disease is completely wiped out. The first disease to be eradicated was smallpox. According to recent data, the infections of the debilitating disease have dropped by 99%. The Guinea worm disease has been found across Africa from Mali to Ethiopia, with most of the current cases being located in Sudan. A report issued by the World Health Organization states that this disease is now prevalent in only 13 countries in Africa, such as Ghana, Sudan, Niger or Ivory Coast.

As Carter said, health experts hope that next year they will see the last reported case of the parasitic illness. The former president also announced that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed $40 million toward the eradication process. The Guinea worm disease appears when people drink water contaminated with larvae. In only a year, one or more of the larvae can grow to be a metre long. Afterwards, they very slowly emerge through the skin, causing debilitating pain for months, but the disease is not fatal. Unfortunately, there is no vaccine or medicine against the parasite.

As ways against the infection, people should filter the water and educate themselves in order to know how to avoid the disease. The Carter Center has been leading the push to rid of the disease by using various methods of treatment and prevention tactics to kill the worm. Aside from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Center works with the UN and Britain's Department for International Development.