ATLANTA, GA....The Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program is getting a huge boost this weekend, thanks to Johnson & Johnson and Home Depot. Johnson & Johnson is donating enough medical supplies to assemble 6,000 health kits to be used in the treatment of Guinea worm disease. Home Depot, a long-time Carter Center partner, is contributing storage facilities, shipping supplies, and volunteers to assemble the kits before they are shipped to Africa.
With less then 100,000 cases of Guinea worm left, the majority of which are in Sudan, the core health kit components and bags will be enough to supply all remaining endemic villages outside of Sudan until 2002 with medical provisions including, Tylenol, Nu-Gauze sponges, Sof-Kling gauze, scissors, forceps, and specially printed bags--all critical medical supplies for treating patients and stopping the cycle of infection. Volunteers and representatives from The Carter Center, Johnson & Johnson, and Home Depot will gather on Saturday, March 24, 2001 at Bell Logistics Warehouse in Atlanta to assemble the health kits.
"This generous support by Johnson & Johnson and Home Depot will enable us to supply health kits to all remaining villages while arming The Carter Center and village health workers for the final assault on Guinea worm disease," said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Prior to Johnson & Johnson's donation, medical kits and their components were purchased locally by the National Guinea Worm Eradication Programs through the Ministries of Health. The medical kits and their contents varied from country to country, depending on what components were locally available.
"These kits contain high-quality supplies that are much needed in the field," said Dr. Donald Hopkins, associate executive director of The Carter Center's Health Programs. "This corporate support also provides critical momentum in a final push to eradicate Guinea worm."
The Carter Center welcomes Johnson & Johnson as a new partner, joining E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., the Government of Japan, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization, which have helped our Guinea Worm Eradication Program end transmission of this debilitating disease in seven countries and reduce the total number of cases by 97 percent. Collaboration and partnership with other organizations, both public and private, is a critical component of The Carter Center's work to make Guinea worm the first parasitic disease in history to be eradicated.
"With less then three percent of the original caseload left to tackle, this significant new corporate commitment from Johnson & Johnson provides critical momentum for total eradication," President Carter said.
In 1986, more than 3.2 million people in Africa and Asia were afflicted with Dracunculiasis, or Guinea worm disease, and another 120 million were at risk of infection. Guinea worm is a 3,000-year-old parasitic disease that rarely makes headlines, but is so painful and debilitating that victims are unable to work, attend school, care for children, or harvest their crops. There is no cure or vaccination for Guinea worm; only health education combined with straining water through a special nylon filter, providing clean water from borehole wells, or chemically treating ponds can prevent the disease. The gauze and other supplies provided in the medical kits will ease the pain and prevent recontamination of water sources. In 2001, The Carter Center continues to spearhead eradication efforts in the 13 African countries still afflicted.
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