Jimmy Carter'a fight against Guinea Worm Approaches Victory

[Stuart G]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/25/jimmy-carter-guinea-worm_n_801252.html

Maggi Fick
Dec 25
10:40 am

ABUYONG, Sudan — 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
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This one program that Carter wages has done more good for people than all the Pukes could imagine in all their life times.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. By contrast

I can imagine Dim Son sharing a chuckle with his overfed frat-boy cohorts at the sight of a Sudanese villager pulling a 3-ft long guinea worm from his leg while screaming and grimacing in pain.

[hayrow]

2. Jimmy Carter is one of the greats of our era, maybe the greatest.

I hope he wins a second Nobel Peace Prize. What living human has done more for the improvement of the human condition? He is a hero of our time. If only his presidency wasn't ruined by his fellow Democrats, including Ted Kennedy, and the Iranians?

[Stuart G]

3. I believe that this one accomplishment, without fanfare, or

noise is terrific. Carter just does. He tries to help humanity in quiet special ways, without having the camera on him. What an example for others to folllow, if they could.

[The Doctor.]

4. It was nothing compared to the holocaust and epic battle because of

the Guinea Pig.

:p