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Real Lives, Real Change: Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program
Meet the Unbreakable Antoinette Sainfabe
Life is hard enough in Haiti, with its profound poverty, natural disasters, and troubled political history. Add to the mix an insidious tropical disease that causes permanent disfigurement, and the result is misery that defies description. Learn More
Hopes Soar for Disease Elimination in Haiti
As a team of health workers arrives in Chan Bon, a tiny mountainside community south of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the aromas of lush plants and cooking food hang in the air while clouds play hide-and-seek with the Caribbean sun. A small group of children noisily labors to free a makeshift plastic kite whose string is tangled in a tree. Learn More
Meet Manuel Gonzales: 'It's Better to Prevent than to Treat'
Helping is in Dr. Manuel Gonzales' nature. It's not just what he does; it's who he is. "My vocation is to help people and help my country," said Gonzales, who became the national manager of the Dominican Republic's successful Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program in April 2001. Learn More
Testing Shows No Sign of Lymphatic Filariasis
Herded outdoors by their teachers, bright-eyed children chatter, their blue-and-white school uniforms gleaming in a sharp but wiggly queue. Their excitement ebbs just a bit when they reach the front of the line and get a finger pricked by an adult wearing surgical gloves. Learn More
Trust Greases Wheels in Race against Lymphatic Filariasis
Mirlande Joseph walks the blistering hot, dusty back alleys of Port-au-Prince, greeting people as if she were a politician running for re-election. "How are you? How is your family? Anyone sick? Did everyone take the medicine when we came by before?" Learn More
IN the SPOTLIGHT: Frank Richards is a Man on a Mission
From Guatemala to Nigeria and beyond, Dr. Frank O. Richards Jr. has dedicated most of his adult life to freeing people from the miseries of river blindness. He has been director of the Carter Center's River Blindness Elimination program since its inception in 1996. Learn More
Committed to His Community: Gabriel Ani, the Best CDD in Nigeria's Enugu State
Gabriel Ani, a 40ish farmer and schoolteacher, is the Carter Center-trained community drug distributor in Ndiulo Village, Aninri Local Government Area, Enugu State, southeastern Nigeria. Learn More
Carter Center Celebrates 500 Millionth Dose of Hope
The Carter Center in 2016 surpassed 500 million doses of medication distributed to fight neglected tropical diseases. Learn More
Cross-border Cooperation a Prescription for Disease Control
Parasites and bacteria have no respect for international borders. Many international frontiers are marked by rivers and lakes; but the water fleas that host Guinea worm larvae, the mosquitoes that transmit lymphatic filariasis and malaria, and the flies that spread river blindness and trachoma don't care which side they're on. Learn More
Carter Center Slideshow: Simple Measures, Big Results
A leader in the eradication and elimination of diseases, The Carter Center is fighting six preventable diseases — Guinea worm, river blindness, trachoma, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, and malaria — by using health education and simple, low-cost methods. The following slideshow illustrates some of the fundamental tools and approaches used by The Carter Center to help build a healthier and more peaceful world. Learn More
Nigeria Launches Coordinated Plan to Eliminate Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis
Two horrific diseases in Nigeria — malaria and lymphatic filariasis (LF) — are being targeted for elimination through a new effort to combine prevention activities, which are detailed in a set of co-implementation guidelines issued on February 18, 2014, by the Federal Ministry of Health with support from The Carter Center. Learn More
Adaptation Key in Director's Fight Against Parasites
In Guatemala 25 years ago, on a coffee farm situated at the slope of a volcano, Frank O. Richards Jr., M.D., sat under a thinly thatched roof talking with an old man. Chickens foraged on the dirt floor, and a mangy dog slept in the corner. Learn More
The Carter Center at 30: Leader in Disease Eradication and Elimination
he Carter Center has become a global leader in the eradication and elimination of diseases, focusing efforts to build health and hope in some of the poorest and most isolated places on earth. Learn More
Integrated Drug Treatment Saves Time, Money in Nigeria
Over the past three years, The Carter Center, in partnership with the Nigeria Ministry of Health, has introduced an innovative way of simultaneously treating several parasitic diseases in Nigeria. In this approach — known as triple-drug treatment — a health worker gives a community member three different medicines at one time that in combination treat river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, and several kinds of intestinal worms. In the interview that follows, Frank Richards Jr., M.D., who directs the Center's programs for fighting these diseases, discusses the benefits of the triple-drug approach. Learn More
Empowering Elimination of Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis from Hispaniola: Snapshots from the Field
In September 2008, The Carter Center and a binational effort between the Dominican Republic and Haiti launched a historic one-year initiative to help the countries and their other partners accelerate the elimination of two devastating mosquito-borne infections—malaria and lymphatic filariasis. Learn More
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Carter Center Delegation Tour Hispaniola to Support Elimination of Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis from Caribbean
Efforts to eliminate malaria and lymphatic filariasis from the Caribbean island of Hispaniola were underscored Oct. 7-8 during a visit by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and a Carter Center delegation. Learn More
Group Brings Hope to Nigerians Disfigured by Swollen Limbs
Swathed in a loose-fitting tunic conservatively hiding his deformed right leg, 38-year-old Hamisu Isa pulls up a white plastic chair to join a group of his fellow Nigerians under two mango trees in the city of Jos. Learn More
Many Forgotten Diseases, One Integrated Approach
To help combat neglected tropical diseases suffered by millions of people, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $10 million to fund two groundbreaking Carter Center initiatives in Nigeria. Learn More
Dr. Emmanuel Miri: 'Dr. Water' Pours New Life into Rural Nigerian Communities with Carter Center Health Programs
His name means "water" and "life" in the Southeastern region of his native Nigeria, and perhaps no name could be more appropriate for Dr. Emmanuel Miri, resident technical adviser for the Carter Center's health programs in Nigeria. Learn More
Innovative Approach to Disease Control Multiplies Results
Imagine a nation almost half the size of the United States where large portions of the population are sick -- not with just one disease but several at once. Such is the daily reality for those living in Nigeria, a nation with one of the highest burdens of disease in Africa. Learn More
Stories From the Field: Hamisu Isa
Sitting on a white plastic chair, Hamisu Isa, 35, listens to members of his lymphatic filariasis support group describe their symptoms, challenges, successes, and hopes. For years, he has suffered from the disease's severest form, elephantiasis – a disfiguring condition that causes grotesque swelling of the legs and genitals. But today, Hamisu's life has turned around. He recently earned a teaching certificate, is teaching mathematics and English at a local elementary school a few times a week, and is working in the market part-time. Learn More