Read the latest news below about the Carter Center's work around the world.
The Carter Center congratulated the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health today for stopping river blindness transmission in four of the country’s 36 states, protecting 18.9 million people from the second-leading infectious cause of blindness. The public health triumph — the largest stop-treatment decision in the history of the global river blindness campaign — was announced today in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, following World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day Jan. 30. Learn more »
Dr. Donald R. Hopkins, the Carter Center’s special advisor for Guinea worm eradication, received an honorary Doctor of Sciences degree Wednesday from the American Museum of Natural History’s Richard Gilder Graduate School. Learn more »
The third annual World NTD Day is Jan. 30, 2022, highlighting the global commitment to ending neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which cause immeasurable suffering among the world’s most marginalized communities. On Sunday, more than 100 landmarks in over 30 nations will light up to celebrate progress and ensure NTDs remain a global priority. Learn more »
The Carter Center, together with the Ethiopia Onchocerciasis Elimination Expert Advisory Committee (EOEEAC), is pleased to further amplify Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health press release, which went out earlier this week. For two decades, Ethiopia has been a leader in river blindness elimination and we congratulate them on interrupting transmission of river blindness in three districts in the Oromia region, the country’s most recent stop treatment decision. Learn more »
New data indicate that mass treatment with ivermectin—a drug that was a workhorse of tropical medicine long before it emerged as a controversial COVID-19 treatment—has eliminated river blindness transmission in two states in Nigeria, the first Nigerian states to achieve this distinction in a country that has the world’s highest burden of the disease. Learn more »
The Carter Center and The Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE) announced an exciting new partnership to support the Carter Center’s innovative disease elimination efforts in the Americas. Learn more »
Carter Center Chief Executive Officer Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters will visit Sudan Nov. 18 and 19 to explore ways The Carter Center can contribute to durable peace and advance efforts to control or eliminate neglected tropical diseases, particularly river blindness and trachoma. Learn more »
Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health has interrupted transmission of river blindness in two large states and as a result will stop mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin (Mectizan®) in 2018. Learn more »
The health programs of The Carter Center have surpassed a major milestone: The organization on Nov. 4 celebrated assisting with the distribution of 500 million doses of donated medication to combat five neglected tropical diseases in 14 countries in Africa and Latin America. Learn more »
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center congratulate President Jimmy Morales and the people of Guatemala for eliminating onchocerciasis (river blindness) in the nation, as verified recently by the World Health Organization (WHO). Learn more »
Uganda has successfully freed 821,230 people, the largest number to be freed from river blindness globally based on the latest WHO guidelines. This has expedited the process of achieving its goal of eliminating river blindness (onchocerciasis) nationwide by 2020. At its peak, the vector-transmitted parasitic worm caused eye and skin disease in 37 districts in Uganda, with about 6.7 million people at risk. Learn more »
Dean G. Sienko, M.D., M.S., has been appointed vice president for health programs at The Carter Center, effective June 2016. Learn more »
The Carter Center and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter congratulate the winners of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine, who discovered drugs that have prevented needless suffering for countless millions of people. Learn more »
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center congratulate President Enrique Peña Nieto and the people of Mexico for eliminating onchocerciasis (river blindness) within its borders, as verified recently by the World Health Organization (WHO). Mexico is the world's third nation to receive official verification of elimination of the disease. Learn more »
The Carter Center, PAHO/WHO, and the Mectizan Donation Program of Merck & Co., Inc., known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, are part of a coalition of organizations helping countries in the Americas fight river blindness (onchocerciasis) and are calling for a final push to definitively eliminate transmission of the disabling disease from the Western Hemisphere. Learn more »
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro Moros in New York City today to discuss the status of the campaign to eliminate river blindness (onchocerciasis) from the Americas. Learn more »
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and businessman Sir Emeka Offor signed an agreement today for a partnership to eliminate river blindness (onchocerciasis) from seven states in Nigeria where The Carter Center works with the Federal Ministry of Health, including Sir Emeka's native state, Anambra. Learn more »
The challenges of eradicating devastating diseases are enormous, but successful strategies can bring about enormous social and economic benefits. Opening at the American Museum of Natural History on January 13, Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease explores the factors that determine if a disease is eradicable — meaning that it can be wiped out completely — as well as the scientific and social innovations that are ridding the world of ancient afflictions. Learn more »
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Mexican businessman Carlos Slim announced today a partnership to assist the regional initiative working with six countries in the Americas to eliminate river blindness (onchocerciasis): Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela. The announcement comes as the Mexican government celebrates eliminating transmission of river blindness nationwide, joining Colombia, Ecuador, and Guatemala. Learn more »
O ex-presidente dos Estados Unidos Jimmy Carter e o empresário mexicano Carlos Slim anunciaram hoje uma parceria para ajudar a iniciativa regional com ações em seis paÃses nas Américas para eliminar a cegueira dos rios (oncocercose): Brasil, Colômbia, Equador, Guatemala, México e Venezuela. O anúncio foi feito ao mesmo tempo em que o governo mexicano comemora a eliminação da transmissão da cegueira dos rios em todo o paÃs, juntando-se a Colômbia, Equador e Guatemala. Learn more »
El ex Presidente de los EE.UU. Jimmy Carter y el empresario mexicano Ing. Carlos Slim anunciaron hoy una alianza para colaborar con la iniciativa regional para eliminar la ceguera de los rÃos (oncocercosis) que incluye seis paÃses en las Américas: Brasil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, México y Venezuela. El anuncio viene en un momento en que el Gobierno mexicano celebra la eliminación de la transmisión de la ceguera de los rÃos a nivel nacional, uniéndose a Colombia, Ecuador y Guatemala. Learn more »
The Carter Center and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) congratulated Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and the people of Ecuador for their country becoming the second in the world to achieve elimination of onchocerciasis (river blindness), as verified by the World Health Organization (WHO). Learn more »
The challenges of eliminating devastating diseases are enormous, but successful strategies can bring about colossal social and economic benefits. Countdown to Zero, a new exhibition about scientific and social innovations that are ridding the world of ancient afflictions, will open at the American Museum of Natural History on Jan. 13, 2015. The exhibition, developed in collaboration with The Carter Center, focuses on several global efforts that have been able to contain, eliminate, or eradicate disease. Chief among these is the 30-year campaign that may soon eradicate Guinea worm disease, positioning it to become only the second human disease ever eradicated, after smallpox. Learn more »
During a ceremony held at the Carter Center's headquarters on May 15, 2014, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Lions Clubs International Foundation Chairperson Wayne Madden announced a US $8.8 million expansion of the Lions-Carter Center SightFirst Initiative to end suffering from major causes of preventable blindness in Ethiopia, Uganda, Mali, and Niger. Learn more »
The Carter Center's long-standing support for the people of Sudan will continue through activities to advance peace, democracy, and health. The Carter Center's Health Program office continues to operate as it undertakes health promotion and disease prevention projects. Learn more »
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today congratulated President Juan Manuel Santos and the people of Colombia for becoming the first of six countries in the Americas to eliminate river blindness. The official ceremony was held today in Bogotá. River blindness, also known as onchocerciasis, is a parasitic disease that can cause intense itching, eyesight damage, and irreversible blindness. Learn more »
The Carter Center announced today that it will no longer only control river blindness, but instead it will work with ministries of health to eliminate it in all 10 countries in Africa and Latin America in the areas where the Center fights the neglected disease. Learn more »
Uganda has successfully interrupted the transmission of Onchocerciasis (river blindness) in three more foci in four districts: Kibaale (Mpamba-Nkusi focus), Maracha (Maracha-Terego focus) and, Mitooma and Bushenyi (Imaramagambo focus). Learn more »
The Carter Center congratulates Uganda for its historic achievement of interrupting transmission of river blindness disease (onchocerciasis) in several parts of the country, freeing hundreds of thousands from risk of this scourge. Learn more »
The Carter Center and its Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA) are pleased to congratulate three Latin American countries on their recent progress toward eliminating river blindness (onchocerciasis). Today at the sixteenth annual InterAmerican Conference on Onchocerciasis – sponsored by The Carter Center, the Pan American Health Organization, the Lions Clubs International Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – three of the six countries in the Americas that have historically suffered from river blindness announced the good news
After 13 years training more than 26,000 public health workers to help fill the gap in rural health services for 75 million Ethiopians, The Carter Center- assisted Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative (EPHTI) officially has been transferred to Ethiopia's Federal Ministries of Health and Education. Established in 1997 at the invitation of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, EPHTI worked in partnership with seven Ethiopian universities and the Ethiopian government to improve the public health education system. Learn more »
Standing in his school's courtyard in El Xab, Guatemala, a blindfolded boy swings a large stick toward an enormous piñata shaped like a fly. Though the scene is a cheerful one, the children are learning something meaningful about the power of their community and country to fight the debilitating disease river blindness (onchocerciasis), which is spread by the bites of black flies that breed in swiftly flowing rivers. Learn more »
Public health officials at the 20th Inter-American Conference on Onchocerciasis in Antigua, Guatemala, confirmed that more than one-third of all Latin Americans who ran the risk of contracting river blindness (onchocerciasis), a leading cause of preventable blindness, are no longer at risk. Learn more »
oday, during a special ceremony in Atlanta, former U.S. President and Carter Center Founder Jimmy Carter received on behalf of The Carter Center two new pledges — $500,000 toward the Guinea Worm Eradication Program and $500,000 toward the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA) — from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), represented by His Excellency Director General Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish. Learn more »
The Sudan Federal Ministry of Health, with assistance from The Carter Center and Lions Clubs International Foundation, announced that the isolated desert area of Abu Hamad has stopped transmission of river blindness (onchocerciasis). Learn more »
Carter Center experts congratulate the people of Ecuador for breaking transmission of the blinding parasitic disease river blindness, or onchocerciasis. Ecuador is the second nation in the Americas after Colombia (in 2008) to stop the transmission of this debilitating, yet preventable affliction on a countrywide basis, according to officials of the Ministry of Health of Ecuador and the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program in the Americas (OEPA). Learn more »
In the dusty and remote village of Molujore, Terekeka County, Southern Sudan, food shortages are common, insecurity lingers, and survival is a daily struggle. Yet, important progress is being made in the effort to wipe out Guinea worm disease, resulting in the community being singled out for a visit from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Central Equatoria State Governor Clement Wani Konga, and Commissioner Clement Maring Samuel today to urge intensification of efforts to wipe out the waterborne parasitic infection during the next transmission season beginning in April. Learn more »
Health officials from 11 African countries have honored former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center for their "pioneering contributions to eradicating neglected tropical diseases in Africa." The leadership award was presented to Carter Center CEO Dr. John Hardman and Dr. Donald Hopkins, vice president of health programs, on April 22 in a Washington, D.C., event sponsored by Global Health Progress and ONE. Learn more »
An international team of researchers led by Rodrigo Gonzalez of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala reports that the transmission of onchocerciasis or river blindness has been broken in Escuintla, Guatemala, one of the largest endemic areas in the Western Hemisphere to date to stop the transmission of the parasitic disease. Learn more »
In an effort to eliminate river blindness (onchocerciasis) from the Western Hemisphere, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an urgent call to interrupt the disease's transmission by 2012. Learn more »
The Carter Center's River Blindness Program, with its global partners, announced recently the 100 millionth treatment of Mectizan® since 1996. The drug, proven effective and safe in treatment and prevention of river blindness, also called onchocerciasis, is donated by Merck & Co., Inc. Learn more »
In a message to Ecuador's newly inaugurated Constituent Assembly, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter urged the constituents to use human rights as a basis for drafting a new constitution and encouraged them to seek a harmonious solution on the definition and implementation of their role in transforming the state's institutions. Learn more »
Almost 30 years ago, when I assumed the presidency of my country and military dictatorships extended throughout Latin America, Ecuador inaugurated a wave of democratization that continues today. Human rights began to be restored as fundamental values, and slowly the countries of Latin America established democratic regimes. Learn more »
Colombia has become the first country to interrupt transmission of onchocerciasis (also known as river blindness) on a countrywide basis, according to officials of the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program in the Americas (OEPA). Learn more »
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter participated in a live online chat June 28, 2007, to discuss malaria and the article "The Ethiopia Campaign - Jimmy Carter Takes on Malaria," featured in the June 2007 issue of Smithsonian magazine. Learn more »
ATLANTA…Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, with a delegation of senior-level Carter Center officials, concluded their two-week tour of Africa today. The Feb. 6-16 visit called international attention to health needs among impoverished communities in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Ghana. Learn more »
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter distributed long-lasting insecticide-impregnated bed nets today in Afeta, a community of 7,500 people in the Jimma zone. The symbolic action was part of the Carter Center's new malaria control initiative in Ethiopia, the largest and most populous country in the Horn of Africa. Malaria is Ethiopia's single largest cause of death. Learn more »
On Thursday, Feb. 9, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Lions Clubs International President Jimmy Ross encouraged Sudan's local Lions Club to participate in the fight against two blinding diseases affecting the country—river blindness and trachoma. The appeal comes during President Carter's multi-country tour of Africa to promote health issues affecting Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Learn more »
The fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) received a major boost today with the announcement of five grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation totaling $46.7 million. The grants will support efforts to coordinate and integrate programs to fight key neglected diseases in developing countries. Learn more »
Halting river blindness in the Americas by 2007 has accelerated with the completion of a $15 million challenge grant to The Carter Center. Learn more »
Atlanta....Frank O. Richards, Jr., M.D., has returned to The Carter Center after retiring from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March 2005. He returns as technical director for the River Blindness Program, Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program, and Schistosomiasis Control Program. Dr. Richards was seconded from CDC to the Center in 1996 with the launching of the River Blindness Program (onchocerciasis) and served as its technical director until 2002. Learn more »
ATLANTA.... Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced today a $2 million gift from the Lions Clubs International Foundation to accelerate the Carter Center's efforts to eliminate river blindness (onchocerciasis) in the Americas. The contribution will be matched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of a challenge grant to help The Carter Center secure a total of $15 million to halt transmission of the disease throughout the region. Learn more »
ATLANTA....Merck & Co., Inc., has donated $1 million to the Carter Center's effort to eliminate river blindness disease in the Americas in this decade. Learn more »
ATLANTA....The Carter Center today announced it will escalate the fight to eliminate river blindness disease from the Americas in this decade with a $10 million challenge grant provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Learn more »
ATLANTA. . . In the battle to fight a major cause of preventable blindness, the Carter Center's River Blindness Program and Lions Clubs International Foundation are celebrating the delivery of more than 50 million Mectizan® treatments in 11 countries in Africa and the Americas since 1996. Learn more »
More than 60 international experts from a variety of disciplines convened at The Carter Center from Jan. 22-24, 2002, to address the question 'Is onchocerciasis (river blindness) eradicable with current knowledge and tools?' The conference, organized by The Carter Center and the World Health Organization, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, included presentations by expert speakers, deliberations in four working groups, and a plenary discussion of major conclusions. Learn more »
Atlanta, GA...The Carter Center announced today that it has received the largest project-specific cash grants in its history - totaling nearly $30 million over the next ten years – from the Lions Clubs International Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Learn more »
The Carter Center has worked in Sudan since 1986, when its SG 2000 Agriculture program began working with farm families to increase the yield and quality of their crops. Led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, SG 2000 helped Sudanese farmers increase wheat production by 500 percent in five years, growing from 157,000 tons in 1986-87 to 831,000 tons in 1991-92. Learn more »
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