You might consider a Chicago doctor, Donald R. Hopkins, who’s had a long distinguished career in tropical medicine. How distinguished? Well, he was one of the team that eradicated smallpox, which left people looking like this….
Hopkins has
an interesting history—he grew up in a community of Bahamians in Coconut Grove
in Miami. Education was important in his family, and he scored a scholarship to
study at Moreland in Atlanta. Then it was off to the University of Chicago,
where he was the only black student in his class in medical school. And then,
partly to avoid the Vietnam War, he joined the Public Health Service.
And he was
interested in tropical diseases, because he had seen trachoma in Egypt; the parasitical disease spread
by flies that leads to blindness. In 1967, his boss asked him to go to Sierra
Leone, to spearhead a new approach to fighting smallpox: instead of vaccinating
the mass population, teams would attack individual outbreaks, starting at the
center and working outward. Would it work? Yes.
Hopkins
went back to the C.D.C., and rose through the ranks, finally retiring as acting
director in 1987. But he didn’t stop working, and he joined up with former
president Carter to
tackle still another problem: the guinea
worm.
Gentle
Reader, you may want to skip this paragraph, and for the truly squeamish, you
definitely don’t want to see the video below, which features—at 2:00—a guinea
worm being extracted from a human leg. Because that’s what happens: villagers
drink water infested with microscopic worms, which grow for a year or so and
then emerge, from any part of the body, though usually it’s the legs or arms.
And unlike
smallpox, the disease doesn’t kill—it just incapacitates. And as you might
imagine, it’s very painful, since the worm secretes an acid which breaks down
connective tissue and allows it to escape. No wonder that the disease is called
dracunculiasis, or “afflicted with little dragons.” Also no wonder that the
first reaction of anybody who has had the worm extracted is to put their
injured leg in water. It might be a good idea for the victim, but it’s
definitely a bummer for the rest of the village, because the moment the wound
is immersed, millions of larvae are released. So the cycle starts all over.
The
worldwide program to eradicate the disease began in 1980 with the C.D.C.; in
1986, The Carter Center stepped in; according
to Wikipedia, “at
that time India, Pakistan, Yemen and 17 countries in Africa were endemic for
this disease and reported a total of 3.5 million cases per year.”
Interestingly,
the solution to the problem isn’t a medicine: it’s a simple change of behavior
and education. Merely filtering drinking water through cloth will rid the water
of the worms. But as Hopkins says, working with the local leaders and
respecting and understanding village traditions and customs is crucial. Which
is why he credits his experience of segregation and prejudice in the South as a
young man: it’s given him the sensitivity to work with others.
An example
might be the obstacle that was preventing the Sudanese civil war;
again, here’s Wikipedia:
One of the
most significant challenges facing Guinea worm eradication has been the civil war in southern Sudan, which was largely inaccessible to
health workers due to violence.[6][56] To
address some of the humanitarian needs in southern
Sudan, in 1995, the
longest ceasefire
in the history of the war was achieved through negotiations by Jimmy Carter.[6][56] Commonly called the "Guinea worm
cease-fire," both warring parties agreed to halt hostilities for nearly
six months to allow public health officials to begin Guinea worm eradication
programming, among other interventions.
And guess
what? It seems to be working, and we are down to less than 600 infections a
year. In 1986, the number was 3.5 million. So there is every chance that
Carter, currently age 89, will see the eradication of the guinea worm before he
dies.
Well,
Gentle Reader, it’s still Monday but…
…feeling
better?
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