Posted on 12/26/2010 12:12:15 PM PST by Libloather
Jimmy Carter Vs. Guinea Worm: Sudan Is Last Battle
Jimmy Carter Racing Guinea Worm To Its Death; Remote And Wild Sudan Disease's Last Stronghold
Dec. 26, 2010
(AP) ABUYONG, Sudan (AP) - Lily pads and purple flowers dot one corner of the watering hole. Bright green algae covers another. Two women collect water in plastic jugs while a cattle herder bathes nearby.
Samuel Makoy is not interested in the bucolic scenery, though. He has an epidemic to quash.
Makoy points out to the women the fingernail-length worm-like creatures whose tails flick back and forth. Then a pond-side health lesson begins on a spaghetti-like worm that has haunted humans for centuries.
This fight against the guinea worm is a battle former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has waged for more than two decades in some of the poorest countries on earth. It is a battle he's almost won.
In the 1950s the 3-foot-long guinea worm ravaged the bodies of an estimated 50 million people, forcing victims through months of pain while the worm exited through a swollen blister on the leg, making it impossible for them to tend to cows or harvest crops. By 1986, the number dropped to 3.5 million. Last year only 3,190 cases were reported.
Today the worm is even closer to being wiped out.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
On the other hand, maybe his little hobby keeps him from ruining too many other countries.
“This fight against the guinea worm is a battle former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has waged for more than two decades in some of the poorest countries on earth. It is a battle he’s almost won.”
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I’m bettin’ the worm wins - hey, there’re fightin’ Jimmuh.
We all know jimmah’s record against rabbits. Maybe a worm is a more even match for him.
I hope all comments for saving the guinea worm are seriously tongue in cheek.
I guess at this point, the Guinea worm is an endangered species. Wish I had a million bucks to finance a lawsuit to enjoin the Carter center from killing this priceless resource.
I give credit to Jimmy on this one. The guinea worm is particularly nasty.
Are not most of these freaks concerned about “endangered” species not also those who spew out or believe in theories of evolution? What the frak happened to that ‘survival of the fittest’ BS then?! “Endangered” species, BAH!. Let ‘survival of the fittest’ do its work. =.=
Like he almost rescued the American hostages in Iran, and almost got re-elected, and almost isn't a raging anti-Semite, and almost didn't suck at everything.
$5 on the worm.
August 7 is International Save the Guinea Worm Day! I kid you not.
Isn’t it kind of bad form for one worm to wipe out another worm?
“I give credit to Jimmy on this one. The guinea worm is particularly nasty.”
But, but ... the guinea worm might produce an enzyme or protein or something that might wipe out AIDs or anal warts or something even MORE important!
For all we know, the Guinea Worm could be an essential part of the food chain. exterminating it could set off a chain reaction that will kill the entire planet.
Save the Guinea Worm!
At the very least, the Klingons will be shocked that we're wasting good gagh.
Whats next hug a virus?
These people are freaking crazy(and at least jimmy can't cause any mischief this way by looking for Guinea worms)
True. Fine creatures like the Dodo Bird, Woolly Mammoth and the Passenger Pigeon are gone forever but nasty parasites remain. Jimmy’s hourglass is almost empty and the elimination of the guinea worm would put a little something on the positive side of his scale. He needs it.
The author T.C. Boyle wrote at length about the guinea worm in “Water Music”. You have to wind them from the back end, where their excrement exits your body, slowly but surely around a stick and tape that securely to your body. If you break the worm, you die of infection.
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