Malik collapsed on a tarp next to other members of this small rural community, children as well as adults, many with worms hanging from holes in their skin. The worms mature and mate inside the body, growing anywhere from three to five feet over 12 months. The female guinea worms eventually migrate to just under the skin in preparation for their reproductive exit back into the water. The disease doesn't usually result in death, but it is excruciatingly painful, especially as the worm prepares to leave the body. Since the mid-1980s, Global 2000 has helped reduce the incidence of guinea worm by 95 percent.
Water safety is an issue the world health establishment has been slow to address.
It isn't high on the list of global health priorities, and sometimes isn't on that list at all. There's no simple solution, no vaccine to fix the problem. In 1988, in the absence of anyone else addressing the guinea worm problem, the Carter Center decided to take the lead as part of a broader effort to improve water safety in developing nations. The center's primary focus is on prevention, not treatment. The Global 2000 workers, using a piece of cloth, demonstrated how to pour water through the makeshift filter.