What is Guinea worm disease? Documentary details Jimmy Carter’s fight to eradicate illness

A new documentary is set to highlight Jimmy Carter's major role in the fight against Guinea worm disease. For those unfamiliar, after his presidency, the 39th U.S. President launched an international campaign (The Carter Campaign) in 1986 to eradicate the disease, which affected more than 3 million people a year in 21 countries in Africa and Asia.

Working alongside the "ministries of health and local communities, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and many others," Carter's efforts had reduced the disease by over 99.99%, bringing the number of cases down to 15 in 2024. The disease has also been wiped out in 17 countries, per the Carter Center.

Guinea Worm Disease, also known as dracunculiasis, is a parasitic infection caused by the nematode roundworm parasite Dracunculus medinensis.

It is transmitted through contaminated drinking water, where the warm larvae are ingested. Once inside the human body, the larvae travel to the abdomen. After nearly a year of incubation, the female worms, measuring 60 to 100 cm, begin emerging from the human body, usually through a painful lesion on the lower leg in about 90% of cases, per the World Health Organization.

The emergence causes a burning sensation, which is generally relieved by submerging the affected area in water. However, water triggers the worm to release more larvae, restarting the cycle of transmission.

The President and the Dragon, directed by Waleed Eltayeb and Ian D. Murphy, which is set to release on October 1, 2025, explores Jimmy's Campaign's efforts to eradicate the disease.

"I would like to see Guinea worm completely eradicated before I die," Carter said in a press conference in 2015.

More about Jimmy Carter's fight to eradicate Guinea worm disease

According to the Carter Center, Guinea worm disease's potential eradication would mark the first time in history that a parasitic disease has been completely wiped out. It would also make Guinea worm the second human disease, after smallpox, to be eradicated, the first parasitic disease to be wiped out, and the first disease to be eliminated without the use of a vaccine or medicine.

The disease also affects animals, which was first discovered in 2012, particularly in six African countries, including Angola, Chad, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mali, and South Sudan. In these countries, animal infections have dropped by 25%, from 887 in 2023 to 664 in 2024.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Adam Weiss, director of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program at the Carter Center, stated:

"He really put Guinea worm and other neglected diseases on the map. It's important to reflect on what kind of special ingredient President Carter brought to the campaign. It's not only his power of persuasion, his ability to convene people, but really kind of inspiring and motivating people in a time when no one talked about neglected tropical diseases."

Speaking about how he began his mission of eliminating the disease, Carter explained in a 2015 interview with NPR that in 1986, Peter Borne, his former drug czar who was working on a U.N. initiative called the "Freshwater Decade," reached out to the Carter Center to discuss neglected diseases, one of which was Guinea worm disease.

"The main reason he [Borne] came to the Carter Center was because he couldn't get anyone else to tackle this problem. It's a despicable disease. And it was in such remote villages that no one wanted to take on the task. So we decided to take it on," recalled Carter.

Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100 on December 29, 2024.