Former US President Jimmy Carter Making an Appearance at Britain's House of Lords
Former President of the United States Jimmy Carter is scheduled to appear at the House of Lords in Great Britain on Wednesday. The 39th U.S. president will talk and discuss his successful campaign against the Guinea worm disease or dracunculiasis that started back in 1986, per the Associated Press.
According to The Carter Center, the main goal of the "Guinea Worm Eradication Program" is to completely eliminate the Guinea worm disease. If the goal is met, it will become the second human disease in history and the first parasitic disease to be eradicated.
, the World Health Organization and UNICEF to combat the parasitiThe first ever disease to be eradicated was smallpox, but the elimination of the Guinea worm disease will be done without the use of any vaccine or medicine. The Carter Center has been working for 30 years with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionc disease caused by Dracunculus medenisis.
The victim usually contracts the disease by consuming contaminated water with female Guinea worms growing as long as one meter and slowly coming out of the skin very painfully after a year of incubation. About 3.5 million people per year are affected in 21 countries in Africa and Asia by the parasitic disease since 1986, but with the help of The Carter Center and its partners, only 22 cases were reported in 2015.
Besides the eradication of the Guinea worm disease, the Carter Center also has programs to prevent and eliminate diseases such as river blindness, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis and schistosomiasis. They also have a program called "The Hispaniola Initiative" that aims to eliminate lymphatic filariasis and malaria in the island of Hispaniola composed of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The 91-year-old ex-president was diagnosed with melanoma on several of his organs including the brain and liver. He underwent immunotherapy treatment using the drug called pembrolizumab as well as radiation therapy. Carter announced on Dec. 6, 2015 via his official website that his cancer was gone, but he will still continue the immunotherapy every three weeks.
"My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones. I will continue to receive regular 3-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab," Carter said in the statement.
The last U.S. president to address the House of Lords is incumbent president Barack Obama last May 2011 during his state visit in the United Kingdom, per The White House. He discussed the history of both nations as well as ways of helping other developing countries.
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