Jimmy Carter Proves The Simpsons Right*
* if you are an African parasite
Former President Jimmy Carter’s time in office is a topic of widely differing appraisals (more often than not shaped by personal politics). To that point, the Simpsons once ran a particularly funny joke about the extremely different ways Carter’s political legacy was seen in the episode “Marge in Chains”:
Part of the joke is that, regardless of whether he was a good President, few Presidents have accomplished more to better the world after leaving office. Yet partisan perspectives often lead us to make hyperbolic statements. As usual, so much depends on perspective.
Which gets to this “good news” post. When interviewed about the work of the Carter Foundation, Carter said in 2015:
“I would like to see Guinea worm completely eradicated before I die,” Carter said at a press conference in 2015. “I’d like for the last Guinea worm to die before I do. I think right now we have 11 cases. We started out with 3.6 million cases.” (Source: NPR)
For those unfamiliar with Guinea worms and Dracunculiasis, the disease they cause, here’s a summary from Wikipedia
A person becomes infected by drinking water contaminated with Guinea-worm larvae that reside inside copepods (a type of small crustacean). Stomach acid digests the copepod and releases the Guinea worm, which penetrates the digestive tract and escapes into the body. Around a year later, the adult female migrates to an exit site – usually the lower leg – and induces an intensely painful blister on the skin. Eventually, the blister bursts, creating a painful wound from which the worm gradually emerges over several weeks. The wound remains painful throughout the worm’s emergence, disabling the affected person for the three to ten weeks it takes the worm to emerge.
It is an incredibly nasty disease that affects both humans and animals. In 1989, there were 892,055 reported cases in humans. Last year, the number of human cases was down to 14. To date in 2024, there has only been a single case reported in humans.*
As most know, Carter is rapidly nearing the end of his life. He’s been in hospice for over a year and lost his wife, Rosalynn, last November. Should he pass, he will go to his rest knowing that the world almost accomplished his wish (and will most likely fully eradicate cases in humans within the next decade).
So, at least from the perspective of one African parasite, Jimmy Carter truly is, was, and will be “history’s greatest monster.” And I hope you all will join me in celebrating his “monsterous” legacy.
* – Cases in animals have dropped significantly as well. Last year there were under 900 reported cases of animal infection world wide. To ensure the total eradication of the Guinea-worm, those will need to be driven to 0 as well.
When I was in Peace Corps in Ghana from 1988-1990, there were a lot of diseases that were particularly horrible: elephantitis, encephalitisc malaria, dengue fever, and the list goes on. But while it wasn’t the worst, Guinea worm is what gives me nightmares. A disease cycle defined by a fantastical sadist, playing out with enough time between every stage to guarantee no one, absent a modern laboratory, would ever make the connection to what they were doing when they became infected. It starts in a dry season with people standing in a pond or reservoirs and exposing their hands or feet to the water and microscopic parasites burrow into their skin, and culminates in the next dry season when the victims, now with two or three feet of parasitic worm wrapped around their wrist or ankle joints causing excruciating pain, step into back into the same water reservoir and the worms sense this and burst through their skin and spray their eggs into the water. If the victim tries to pull the worm out at this point, an all too human action, they will pull the head off and the rest of the worm will die and decay in their joints causing infection. The only thing they can do is wrap the exposed portion around a stick and twist it a small turn every couple of hours, pulling it out millimeter by millimeter over the course of weeks.
Nightmares.
@MarkedMan: Damn. That’s without a doubt one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever read.
@Mikey: agreed! TY for sharing that @MarkedMan. It only makes me respect what Carter and many others have been working to accomplish even more.
@MarkedMan: A medical missionary to Ghana, I think, described the process to our church junior high youth group one year. A long and labor-intensive process.
@MarkedMan:
Jesus.
If Stephen King write that, his editor would send it back saying it was too far fetched.
@MarkedMan: Oh god I’ve seen that and I had no idea what the name of that worm was. Horrible shit man
In related news, the Guinea worm has endorsed Trump.
These are truly nasty people, these Democrats.
You know, I watch that video, and I don’t really feel like laughing.
Thank you for this, Matt.
I always thought President Carter was unfairly maligned, when he was responsible for stabilizing the budget, appointing Volker to the Fed with an inflation-crushing agenda, deploying theatre nuclear missiles in Europe when the Soviets refused to back off on the SS-20’s, upgrading NATO conventional force prep, refusing to accept Afghanistan as being within the “Soviet sphere” etc.
He was, unfortunately, sandbagged by the second oil price crisis, and Soviet adventurism.
I was unaware of the Carter Foundations’ role in disease eradication
Any man responsible for contributing to the eradication of a horrible disease deserves all the statues he gets.
(See also Bill Gates and malaria eradication, and polio vaccination).
Good for you, James Earl Carter Jr.
I hear his name & can ot believe what a wonderfully President & MAN he is .he was a great President, the absolute zenith of all post their presidency. Remember how he was called by Countries wanting to have clean & honest elections ? He has done his best to have HEAVEN right here on Earth. His Mom was such a great influence as he grew up, even love his good ole boy brother. So wonderful to think how great his love was..between he & Roselynn
I sure wish I could be there when St. Peter tells him ” Welcome home, Jimmy !
@Franklin: It’s his spirit animal!
Who doesn’t love the Carter’s. Wish more could follow there example. They were doers, they did the walk. God bless them!