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Carter speaks on filling ‘the vacuums of the world’
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ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter was honored here yesterday at a reception given in recognition of the Carter Center’s efforts to eradicate blindness worldwide.
Mr. Carter said the Carter Center treated nearly 35 million people with onchocerciasis last year alone. He explained that the treatment, which eliminates the itching and the sores associated with river blindness, “is as precious to the people of Africa as a diamond. So we give it to them directly, we place the treatment directly into their mouths." The Mectizan treatment (ivermectin, Merck) does not cure the disease, he said, but stops it from spreading.
The Global 2000 River Blindness Program was established at the Carter Center to help residents of affected communities and local health care workers establish and sustain treatment and related health education activities.
President Carter said that in the Sudan, water treatment filters had been installed in many homes to help prevent transmission of the disease. Unfortunately, because Sudan is in political upheaval, researchers are unable to get back to the Sudan to investigate whether the filters were successful, he said.
“Our dream is that there will be peace in the Sudan,” he said.
The center is also heavily involved in the treatment of trachoma worldwide, especially in Africa. Mr. Carter said trachoma is the No. 1 cause of preventable blindness is the world. He said the Carter Center’s efforts to treat trachoma employ the SAFE procedure: Surgery to correct lid deformities; Antibiotics to treat active disease; Face washing; and Environmental treatments to improve water supply and household hygiene and sanitation.
The Carter Center was established 20 years ago as a vehicle to provide help in health care and peace-making efforts throughout the world. Nearly half of the center’s budget goes toward health care expenditures worldwide. Mr. Carter explained that the center identifies a health care problem by the lack of attention paid to it.
“We don’t duplicate what anyone else does. We try to fill the vacuums in the world,” he said.
At the reception, hosted by Novartis Ophthalmics, Novartis officials announced a pilot program to aid the Carter Center’s efforts to fight trachoma in Ethiopia. In addition to a $50,000 donation, Novartis will donate supplies of its Eye Scrub cleanser, officials said.