Britain joins Jimmy Carter in final push against guinea worm disease

Britain is partnering with the U.S.-based Carter Center to help make the Guinea worm only the second human disease in history to be eradicated, International Development Minister Nick Hurd and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter announced Wednesday.

Britain's Department for International Development is providing 6.5 million U.S. dollars in new support for the Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program.

The announcement came ahead of a planned address by Carter later Wednesday in Britain's House of Lords.

The funding will pay for health volunteers, water filters and larvicide in the few remaining endemic villages in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad and Mali. It will also support surveillance campaigns in 6,000 villages across these four remaining endemic countries as well as education campaigns to ensure the disease doesn't resurface.

Guinea worm disease is a parasite caused by drinking infected water. The worm grows inside the body, causing severe pain for up to a year. The worm, which can reach up to a meter in length, eventually emerges through the skin, usually from the leg, causing intense pain and disability which can last for months.

The Carter Center began leading the international campaign to eradicate the disease in 1986, when there were an estimated 3.5 million cases annually in Africa and Asia. Last month, the center announced that only 22 people worldwide had contracted the disease in 2015.

Nick Hurd said: "Guinea worm is a truly horrendous disease, causing unimaginable pain and suffering. The fact that we are now so close to eradicating it is one of the great public health success stories of modern times."

Carter is on a visit to London to focus on Carter Center health efforts, including the launch of the international display of the exhibition Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease. Endit