“Mr President. At the beginning of the evening Jon Snow gave a list of your achievements. You have inspired people from my generation to my father’s generation. I was wondering what is your greatest achievement and what achievement are you yet to achieve?”
The question came from a young woman in the audience at the Royal Festival Hall in London. It was addressed to Jimmy Carter. For 40 minutes the 87-year- old former US president had covered topics as wide-ranging as Korea, global warming, the Iranian hostage crisis of his presidency, peace in the Middle East, the work of the Carter Center and the secrets of his 65-year marriage to Rosalynn.
The elder statesman looked up. Keeping my country at peace was my greatest achievement, he said. “In the future, my main achievement that I hope to realise is to eradicate guinea worm from the face of the earth.”
That was more than 12 years ago. In November 2023, at the age of 99, living in a hospice and mourning the death of Rosalynn, his wife for 77 years, Jimmy Carter released a beautiful statement. It read:
‘Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.’
In all of his achievements, in everything he ever accomplished.
Everything includes guinea worm. Or dracunculiasis. It’s a disease that can only be transmitted by drinking stagnant water infested with water fleas, the carriers of guinea worm larvae. Once inside a human body, the larvae become a worm, sometimes growing to one metre long. It can take a year before a blister appears. Then there’s a burning pain. Naturally, the infected person attempts to cool the blister in water. So often, the same water as before, spreading the disease. The cycle begins again.
It doesn’t kill, but guinea worm is a long, painful and debilitating disease. The worm has to be manually extracted over many weeks. No medicine. No vaccine. It’s a slow process. The cure lies in health education, the wider availability of safe drinking water and the treatment of infected ponds and pools with the larvicide temephos.
For more than 35 years Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center have spearheaded the global partnership to eradicate guinea worm. The fact is that 35 years ago, three and a half million people in 21 countries of Asia and Africa were affected by guinea worm disease. In 2011, 1,058 cases were reported in just five African countries. Eleven years later, Jimmy Carter’s mission ‘to eradicate guinea worm from the face of the earth’ was almost complete. Between them Chad and South Sudan accounted for 11 of the 13 human cases recorded worldwide in 2022. Ethiopia and the Central African Republic reported one case each.
After smallpox, guinea worm disease is likely to become only the second disease ever to be wiped out completely. The current projection is that it will happen this decade. Not all because of Jimmy Carter. It’s been a global effort. But when the day guinea worm disease is completely eradicated – a day which Jimmy Carter sadly may not live to see, but one which he certainly knew would come – it will be his name on everyone’s lips. It will be his greatest achievement, one that would never have been possible without Rosalynn.