Jimmy Carter vs. guinea worm: Sudan is last battle

[The Straight Story]

Jimmy Carter vs. guinea worm: Sudan is last battle


ABUYONG, Sudan – Lily pads and purple flowers dot one corner of the watering hole. Bright green algae covers another. Two women collect water in plastic jugs while a cattle herder bathes nearby.

Samuel Makoy is not interested in the bucolic scenery, though. He has an epidemic to quash.

Makoy points out to the women the fingernail-length worm-like creatures whose tails flick back and forth. Then a pond-side health lesson begins on a spaghetti-like worm that has haunted humans for centuries.

This fight against the guinea worm is a battle former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has waged for more than two decades in some of the poorest countries on earth. It is a battle he's almost won.

In the 1950s the 3-foot-long guinea worm ravaged the bodies of an estimated 50 million people, forcing victims through months of pain while the worm exited through a swollen blister on the leg, making it impossible for them to tend to cows or harvest crops. By 1986, the number dropped to 3.5 million. Last year only 3,190 cases were reported.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101226/ap_on_re_af/af_sudan_carter_s_last_worm

[onehandle]

1. Pinned to the front page:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4673450

[msongs]

2. let's see ANYBODY in the extended Bush family do anything useful for humanity nt