200,000 liters would fill 10,000 jerry cans like this one.

Uganda is one of the few African countries challenging the notion that river blindness cannot be eliminated on the continent.  Almost 4,700 liters of donated ABATE are earmarked to carry this effort through 2020. The World Health Organization has successfully used ABATE in West African river blindness control programs. In Uganda, larviciding with ABATE is government policy in accordance with WHO’s recommendation, and vector control is done by Ministry of Health personnel as part of an effort to stop the spread of river blindness nationwide. To learn more about this unique, environmentally friendly application, please see the short film, “The Crab and the Fly.”

The remaining liters of donated ABATE will be used to control  fresh water copepods (water fleas) that serve as intermediate hosts for Guinea worm larvae in their last hiding spots, stagnant ponds in extremely remote parts of Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, and South Sudan. When combined with health education and proper filter use, these ABATE treatments will help break the transmission cycle of Guinea worm disease once and for all, making it only the second human disease (after smallpox) to be eradicated.

ABATE is a mild larvicide based on the organophosphate temephos. When used as directed, it is safe for humans and is recommended by the World Health Organization for use in drinking water. After application, the residual activity of ABATE will prevent insects for a few weeks until it is applied again.

BASF has supported The Carter Center and its health programs since taking over the Cyanamid Crop Protection Division from American Home Products Corporation in 2000. Together, the two companies have donated more than 200,000 liters of ABATE (equivalent to 10,000 filled jerry cans) valued at more than $4.1 million, in support of these vital public health programs that provide hope and fight disease in some of the world’s most neglected communities.

View the updated schedule, find the American Public Television station nearest you (PDF) >                

By Sept. 1, 2012, the documentary will have aired 1054 times and covered more than 80 percent of the U.S. market.

For nearly three years, “Foul Water Fiery Serpent” tracked determined teams of men and women as they fought the closing skirmishes to wipe out some of the last Guinea worms in Ghana and Southern Sudan, attacking the parasite where it thrived: in poor, remote villages that rely on contaminated water. Ghana has since stopped transmission of the disease, and the majority of the world’s remaining cases — 1,058 reported in 2011 — are located in South Sudan, Mali, Ethiopia, and an isolated outbreak in Chad.

“And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died…” Numbers 21:4-9.

Parasitologists believe the “fiery serpents” of the Bible might have been Guinea worms. The disease would have been present in the Middle East at the time of the Exodus, as it was until recently. The worms can be the width of a piece of spaghetti and cause excruciating pain when breaking through the skin to release their larvae, so it is easy to understand how they could be called “fiery serpents.”

For thousands of years, the Guinea worm parasite (Dracunculus medinensis) has caused disabling misery, infecting people who drink stagnant water contaminated with the worm’s larvae. After growing inside the human host for a year, the adult female worm, up to 3-feet-long, emerges from the body through a skin blister, causing incapacitating pain and sometimes crippling its victims. There is no cure for Guinea worm disease, and the only treatment is wrapping the worm around a piece of gauze or a stick and painfully pulling it out, inch by inch, every day, for weeks. Learn more about the Carter Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program >

When The Carter Center-led initiative began in 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases of the disease in 21 countries in Africa and Asia. Guinea worm disease has been reduced by more than 99.9 percent through the work of The Carter Center and its partners, and is likely to be only the second human disease in history, after smallpox, to be eradicated from the Earth, and the first to be wiped out without a medicine or vaccine.

Narrated by actress Sigourney Weaver, the documentary was produced by Cielo Productions. Visit the website >

Read the full release from the Sudan Ministry of Health (PDF) >

Resources:

Read more about the Carter Center’s River Blindness Program >

Watch “Eliminating River Blindness in Sudan” (three-part video) >

Read more about the Carter Center’s river blindness efforts in Sudan >

Making bricks from scratch is just one way the Center’s staff is overcoming huge odds to wipe out Guinea worm once and for all. See how the program moves material across a country the size of Texas without using paved roads >

The progress that the program has made – reducing cases from more than 20,500 in 2006 to fewer than 1,700 in 2010 – is a remarkable public health achievement. Almost as impressive are the logistics of this massive program, the support system and life line that allows thousands to do battle with the Guinea worm where it still lives, in impoverished villages with no access to safe water.

Listen as two of the people responsible for overseeing the care of millions describe what it takes to do public health work in what will soon be the world’s newest country, with limited infrastructure and virtually no industry.

Click image below to watch video.

The Carter Center leads the international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm. To follow along as Guinea worm becomes only the second human disease in history to be completely wiped out, check out our Guinea worm microsite.

Carter Center observers remain deployed across Sudan and in out-of-country voting locations as voting continues in the referendum on the self-determination of Southern Sudan. Here are images from across Juba on days one and two of voting.  Carter Center Photos:  D. Hakes

 

In the Lologo Market polling station in Juba, hundreds of men and women queued to vote on day one of the referendum. Some people held rolled up mattresses next to them. They had spent the night to be the first to vote.

 

Carter Center observer Owen McDougall talks to voters waiting for voting to begin at Lologo Market polling station.

 

The head of a polling station in Juba reads the serial number of a ballot box seal to observers, as polls prepared to open. Noting the specific seal ensures later on that it has not been taken off and replaced, and that the ballots within the box remain undisturbed.

 

Observer Paul Linnell consults with a domestic observer as polls prepared to open on Jan. 9.

 

 

Two women wait for voting to begin in Lologa Market, Juba.

A polling official helps a woman cast her ballot on Jan. 9 in Juba.

President and Mrs. Carter complete their observer checklist at a polling station on Jan. 9 in Juba.

A man has his finger dipped in indelible ink after voting on Jan. 9.

Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan talks with a woman after she has voted on Jan. 9. Annan is leading the Carter Center’s observation delegation along with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Tanzania Prime Minister Joseph Warioba, and Dr. John Hardman, Carter Center president and CEO.

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter asks a question of a polling official on Jan. 9 in Juba, with long lines of voters behind her.

A polling official in Juba.

President Carter watches a man vote on Jan. 9.

President Carter’s motorcade travels down a dusty road to reach the next polling center to observe on Jan. 10.

The Carters observe near Juba on Jan. 10.

President and Mrs. Carter talk with a polling official outside Juba on Jan. 10.

Men in line waiting to vote on Jan. 10 near Juba. (Men and women form separate lines.)

President Carter signs a referendum center polling journal outside Juba on Jan. 10, documenting that he visited that center to observe.

Read blog:  “Sudan Referendum Begins Jan. 9; Observers Prepare to Deploy” >

Read “Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Joseph Warioba, and John Hardman to Lead Carter Center Delegation to Observe Referendum on Self-Determination of Southern Sudan” >

Watch video:  Carter Center Prepares to Observe Sudan Referendum >

More than 100 Carter Center observers will be deployed across Sudan and in eight out-of-country voting locations to witness voting in the referendum for the self-determination of Southern Sudan, as part of one of the Center’s largest observation missions. Most observers are currently being briefed in Juba, Sudan, and will deploy Friday, but some long-term observers are already in their regions of responsibility.

The referendum is the fulfillment of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement and is a critically important moment for Sudan and the opportunity for Southern Sudanese to express their political will in an open, democratic process.

Listen to Sanne van den Bergh, Carter Center field office director for Sudan, explain the Center’s preparations.

Click image below to watch video.

Carter Center Field Office Director Sanne van den Bergh briefs one of the Center's observers on the region to which she will be deployed.

A group of Carter Center observers in Juba, Sudan, poses by the Nile river after their briefing on the referendum on Jan. 5.

Read “Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Joseph Warioba, and John Hardman to Lead Carter Center Delegation to Observe Referendum on Self-Determination of Southern Sudan” >

Watch video:  Carter Center Prepares to Observe Sudan Referendum >

Click image below to watch video.

Read “Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Joseph Warioba, and John Hardman to Lead Carter Center Delegation to Observe Referendum on Self-Determination of Southern Sudan” >

Read Carter Center blog entry from Sudan, watch video: Sudan Referendum Begins Jan. 9; Observers Prepare to Deploy >

Sudan ended its peak season for transmission of the water-borne Guinea worm parasite in September, and few additional cases are expected to emerge through December. The Carter Center assists the Southern Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program in identifying and treating each case of the disease in remote rural areas of the region, which harbors more than 96 percent of remaining cases worldwide.

In this video, President Carter and health workers discuss the challenges that violence and, potentially, war could pose to the historic effort to make Guinea worm the second human disease to be eradicated.

*Provisional number

Click image below to watch video.

To read more: Guinea Worm Eradication Program >

Watch Carter Center observers in Sudan as Sarah Johnson, assistant director of the Democracy Program, explains the significance of these elections and importance of having an observer presence.

Click image below to watch video.