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- Title
Persistence Pays Off in Guinea Worm Fight.
- Authors
Voelker, Rebecca
- Abstract
This article reports on the efforts of the dracunculiasis eradication program of the Carter Center in Ghana, Africa. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter traveled to Saveluga, Ghana where he saw 300 afflicted patients lined up for care. Dracunculiasis, or guinea worm disease, is very painful and the outbreak in the area occurred when the pipe carrying clean water broke and people scrambled to find any water to drink. Drinking contaminated water allows the larvae to enter the human abdomen where they can grow to 3 feet long. While the worms don't kill the person, they do painfully erupt through the skin. The disease is preventable with basic services, but since it is not lethal it gets little attention except from the Carter Center.
- Subjects
GHANA; DRACUNCULIASIS; HELMINTHIASIS; GUINEA worm; CONTAMINATION of drinking water; EMORY University. Carter Center; CARTER, Jimmy, 1924-; PREVENTIVE medicine; DISEASE outbreaks
- Publication
JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2007, Vol 298, Issue 16, p1856
- ISSN
0098-7484
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1001/jama.298.16.1856