Carter Center Guinea worm eradication program in 'final stages'

"Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced today that the international Guinea worm eradication campaign spearheaded by the Carter Center has reached its final stages with only 542 cases reported worldwide in 2012," a Carter Center press release reports, noting the provisional case numbers show cases of the disease were halved in 2012 in the four remaining endemic countries. "In 2012, South Sudan reported the majority of cases (521) from a handful of isolated locations. The remaining cases in 2012 were reported by Chad (10), Mali (7), and Ethiopia (4)," the press release notes. "The collateral impact of this campaign is immense; it empowers people in some of the world's most neglected communities to protect themselves from a terrible disease and to believe in the possibility of a brighter future," President Carter said in the press release, adding, "We are so close and I look forward to personally announcing that we have stopped transmission of Guinea worm disease worldwide" (1/17).