Dose of Tenacity Wears Down a Horrific Disease

New York Times ^ | 3/26/2006 | DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

[Born Conservative]

OGI, Nigeria — Whatever secrets the turgid brown depths of the Sacred Pond of Ogi may keep, there is one they betray quite easily: why it is so infuriatingly hard to wipe even one disease off the face of the earth.

Ogi is one of the last areas of Nigeria infested with Guinea worm, a plague so ancient that it is found in Egyptian mummies and is thought to be the "fiery serpent" described in the Old Testament as torturing the Israelites in the desert.

For untold generations here, yardlong, spaghetti-thin worms erupted from the legs or feet — or even eye sockets — of victims, forcing their way out by exuding acid under the skin until it bubbled and burst. The searing pain drove them to plunge the blisters into the nearest pool of water, whereupon the worm would squirt out a milky cloud of larvae, starting the cycle anew.

"The pain is like if you stab somebody," said Hyacinth Igelle, a farmer with a worm coming out of a hand so swollen and tender that he could not hold a hoe. He indicated how the pain moved slowly up his arm. "It is like fire — it comes late, but you feel it even unto your heart."

Now, thanks to a relentless 20-year campaign led by former President Jimmy Carter, Guinea worm is poised to become the first disease since smallpox to be pushed into oblivion. Fewer than 12,000 cases were found last year, down from 3 million in 1986.

Mr. Carter persuaded world leaders, philanthropists and companies to care about an obscure and revolting disease and help him fight it. His foundation mobilized volunteers in tens of thousands of villages to treat the drinking water the worms live in.

[Born Conservative]

 

[Dallas59]

Yuck.

[Zeroisanumber]

I think I may drop over dead if I give President Carter any non-sarcastic credit, so instead I'll pretend that the disease was wiped out by our alien ant overlords.

[lepton]

Shouldn't this be put on the endangered species list?

[sionnsar]

Mr. Carter persuaded world leaders, philanthropists and companies to care about an obscure and revolting disease and help him fight it. His foundation mobilized volunteers in tens of thousands of villages to treat the drinking water the worms live in.

My regard for Jimmy Carter can't fall any further from where it is, but if he has actually contributed significantly to this cause (as opposed to jumping out in front of others' work), my hat's off to him.

(But he will still remain the worst president ever, in my opinion.)

[Sundog]

Y-uUUu-ck.

[Jessarah]

Yikes! Enough to give me bad dreams tonight. Another reason to thank God we live in America!

[DBrow]

Diseases (well, infestations) like this, and filiariasis, and River Blindness, are reasons that it is so hard to get economic development in Africa.

I too think Carter was a terrible president, but he did kick this effort off.

I used to read e-room reports of African immigrants coming into USA emergency rooms with this WORM burrowing out of them. Some people think that the practice of winding the worm on a stick was the origin of the caduceus, but I think that maybe it was Ridley Scott and Gieger's inspiration for Alien.

In the USA, we have ascarides worm, which can be just as yucky.

[sgtbono2002]

It sounds to me like Jimmy has found his niche. He should stick to Guinea worms and leave running governments to those better suited for it.

[Natural Law]

This is most likely the disease Herod suffered from before his death. He was reported to have worms eruptimg from his genitals.

[Redbob]

"It sounds to me like Jimmy has found his niche."

Sort of like an inverse "Peter PRinciple," eh?

He has finally fallen to the level of a job he can handle - showing stone-age cultures the advantages of hygiene.

[killermosquito]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I'm sure they will be able to evolve their way out of it.

[Rembrandt]

"Dose of Tenacity Wears Down a Horrific Disease"

From the headline (above), I thought the NY Slimes were talking about the Republican party.

[vbmoneyspender]

It takes a worm to beat a worm.

[VOA]

Isn't nature wonderful...bump

[NRA2BFree]

Shouldn't this be put on the endangered species list?

ROTFLOL!! Yessss! Somebody call Peta and the Sierra Club. Let's sick them on Carter. :o)

[Petronski]

I for one welcome our new Guinea worm overlords.

[Petronski]

He was reported to have worms eruptimg from his genitals.

Yet another way Herod compares to Clinton.

[Petronski]

It takes a worm to beat a worm.

If that's the case, we'll want to get David Gergen involved immediately.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Disease eradication kudus can go to unexpected people. The US was happily spending our money and labor to just hold smallpox stable at 3 million deaths a year. It was the Soviet representatives to the WHO who first suggested that for the same amount of (mostly our) money and labor we could eradicate it and in about a decade they were proven correct.