You know that you are in a room with passionate global-health do-gooders when no one bats an eye at a graphic visual of guinea worm extraction.

This morning, I attended a session given by the Carter Center, an organization that has pioneered many successful interventions for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

Founded in 1982, by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, the Carter Center’s focus has not only been about saving lifes, but improving them.

Eliminating a number of NTDs is central to the Center’s mission and goals. They are currently deeply involved in a number programs:

• Guinea Worm Eradication Program
• Onchocerciasis Elimination Program
• Trachoma Control Program
• Lymphatic Filariasis Control Program
• Schistosomiasis Control Program

With the help of their partners, the programs have seen many successes such as:

• In 1986 there were 3.5 million cases of guinea worm in Africa and Asia , with 120 million people at risk in endemic countries. Today, through Carter-Center supported programs in  the first 10 months of 2010, there have been 1,624 reported cases, of which 1,549 were in Sudan (96 percent of all cases), 50 in Mali, 17 in Ethiopia, and eight in Ghana.
• The Center has assisted in the delivery of more than 128 million Mectizan treatments since its River Blindness Program was launched in 1996.
• More than 46 million doses of Zithromax have been distributed to treat blinding Trachoma.
• Since 1999, the Carter Center-assisted program has been the largest initiative working in Nigeria to prevent and treat schistosomiasis through health education campaigns and the distribution of praziquantel.

New Cases of Guinea Worm?

What was most compelling about this talk was when Dr. Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben, Director of the Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program talked about the potential of new outbreak. The last reported case of guinea worm in Chad was in 1998, however in 2009 two new reported cases came to light. The surrounding areas were immediately surveyed and no other new cases were found immediately, but a few months later five new cases were reported. The Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other partners are still working towards identifying whether these cases were, in fact, guinea worm and where they came from.

Overall,  the session gave a fantastic overview of all of the Center’s programs, successes, and objectives for the future.  For guinea worm in particular, it seems like the outlook remains positive with Ruiz-Tiben asserting that “by 2015 we can declare that the world is free of Guinea worm.”