Carter: "fight against Guinea worm disease needs more effort"; "Ghana must do more to raise public awareness and ensure a sense of urgency to finally put an end to the social injustice of Guinea worm disease," says the Carter Centre.

Last year, Ghana set a deadline to stop the transmission of Guinea worm disease by March 2007 to coincide with the country's Golden Jubilee celebrations. The Ministry of Health, through its Guinea Worm Eradication Programme, has since stepped up efforts to combat the disease, including announcing free treatment in all public hospitals and clinics and opening 10 case containment centres. However, the Ministry's efforts have not been good enough and Ghana still ranks as the second-most endemic country in the world. The first is Sudan. On 8 February, amid the scorching heat of peak dry season, the former US president, Jimmy Carter, visited Savelugu in northern Ghana to meet dozens of victims of Guinea worm disease in an effort to bring global attention to the disease.

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Representatives from the Ghana government, organisational partners, and high-level Ghanaian health officials, including the Northern regional minister, Mustapha Ali Iddris, and the deputy regional minister, Issah Ketekewu, joined President Carter on the field trip hosted by the director general of the Ghana Health Services, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa.

"Ghana must do more to raise public awareness and ensure a sense of urgency to finally put an end to the social injustice of Guinea worm, an unnecessary and preventable disease," said Jimmy Carter. "The country has the wealth and ability to eradicate Guinea worm disease. But there needs to be more commitment of officials and health staff at all levels to keep people with Guinea worm disease from contaminating sources of drinking water."

The former president travelled to Ghana, the country that inspired him 20 years ago to lead an international coalition to eradicate Guinea worm disease, a debilitating parasitic infection that traps its victims in a cycle of poverty and pain for generations. During his visit, President Carter met President John Agyekum Kufuor to discuss efforts to eliminate the disease from Ghana which is the most Guinea worm-endemic country in West Africa and second in the world, only to Sudan.

Led by Jimmy Carter, The Carter Centre has spearheaded a coalition of organisations in the global campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease since 1986. The global Guinea worm eradication campaign is now fighting the last fraction of 1% of Guinea worm disease remaining in the world. Ghana accounts for nearly 17% of the approximately 25,000 cases reported in 2006. Almost all the others can be found in Sudan.

While Ghana swiftly reduced Guinea worm cases after the programme started in 1987, surges in cases in the mid and late 1990s left the country ranking as the highest endemic country in the world in 2004, surpassing even Sudan, which had been fighting a civil war for more than 20 years. By the end of 2006, Ghana reported 4,132 cases. Nearly half of affected Ghanaians are children under 15 years old.

"There is no excuse for the continued suffering caused by Guinea worm disease," said Dr Andrew Seidu Korkor, the national Guinea Worm programme coordinator. "It is up to all of us including individuals, communities, health workers, and policy makers to commit to the challenge and take immediate action to change the lives of our children who suffer from this disease. We are running out of chances to give the next generation an opportunity for a bright and healthy future free of Guinea worm disease."