On Mar. 27, 1995, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter brokered a six-month cease-fire in Sudan to help eradicate Guinea worm disease (GWD). The cease-fire was the longest humanitarian cease-fire in history and allowed health workers to safely distribute water filters and identify villages with the disease. The cease-fire helped stop the spread of GWD in much of what became South Sudan.

GWD, dracunculiasis, is an infection caused by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis. GWD is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) transmitted to people mostly by consuming unsafe water. Unfiltered drinking water from ponds or other stagnant surface water sources can contain near-microscopic crustaceans called copepods (tiny “water fleas”) that are infected with Guinea worm larvae (immature forms of the Guinea worm).

People do not usually have GWD symptoms until about one year after infection. Then, a mature pregnant female worm full of larvae creates a blister on the skin through which she will emerge and expel her larvae when she comes in contact with water. There is no treatment nor a vaccine for Guinea worm disease.

Carter’s work in Guinea worm eradication began in 1986 and led to a decades-long campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease. He and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, founded the Carter Center, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that focused on the disease. In 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases in at least 21 countries in Africa and Asia. Today, that number has been reduced by more than 99.99%. Only 13 provisional human cases were reported worldwide in 2023. That number matches the lowest annual total of human cases ever reported, following 13 cases in 2022 and 15 in 2021.