Countdown To Zero, with the Carter Center
What if you could put an end to a painful or deadly disease? If you could ensure that no one would ever suffer from it again? That goal of wiping out every single case of a disease is ambitious and the challenges are enormous—but the potential benefits are even greater.
The Carter Center has led a 30 year international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease, in close collaboration with ministries of health and local communities, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and many others. In 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases of the disease in 21 countries in Africa and Asia. Today, cases have been reduced by more than 99.9 percent.
Guinea worm disease is set to become the second human disease in history, after smallpox, to be eradicated. It will be the first parasitic disease to be eradicated and the first disease to be eradicated without the use of a vaccine or medicine. To learn more: Click here.
Alice, Bernadette Koch and Jaclyn Houseknecht had the pleasure of attending the ‘Countdown To Zero’ exhibition in New York City at the American Museum of Natural History, which places a special focus on the Carter Center’s worldwide efforts to eradicate several diseases.
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease is on view at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC January 13, 2015–January 2, 2017.
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