How Worm Warriors Are Beating An Unbeatable Worm
How do you get rid of river blindness? It’s all about the worm.
Specifically, about “breaking the life cycle” of onchocerca volvulu, the parasitic worm that causes the disease, says Dr. Frank O. Richards Jr., who directs the Carter Center’s river blindness elimination and other tropical disease programs.
But that cycle of transmission and infection is so complex that until recently, many experts believed elimination as a goal was unattainable. Now the World Health Organization target date to achieve it is 2025, thanks to the widespread distribution of a game-changing medicine and what Richards calls the “vision” of accomplishing the possibility, encouraged by the successful strategies employed in the Carter Center’s fight against Guinea worm.
photo:Kay Hinton/Courtesy of The Carter Center
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