Former Head of State and an elder statesman, General Yakubu Gowon on Wednesday paid tributes to former President of the United States of America, Jimmy Carter for his laudable role in the fight against Guinea worm disease eradication in Africa and Nigeria in particular.
Addressing newsmen at the Yakubu Gowon Center in Abuja in honour of the deceased, Gen Gowon gave the sequence of events of The Carter Center ( TC) programs in Nigeria which assisted in no small way in fighting the disease in the country
According to him, “the Guinea disease eradication program (GWEP) started in 1987/88 and President Jimmy Carter first visited Nigeria to launch it on March 14 1988.”
He stated that at that time, 20 countries had 3.5million cases of the disease, 17 of the countries were in Africa and that Nigeria was the worst endemic with over 650,000 cases.
He, however, said that after 8 years of intervention, the Guinea worm diseases dropped to 16,000 cases while in 1995 it refused to drop further for four years.
According to him, ” In 1998 President Carter invited him to fight the disease and he (Gowon) began field visits in 1999 to fight the disease in Nigeria
“By 2008 the cases had dropped to 38 cases and by 2009 Nigeria recorded zero cases which was maintained f6 five years and December 6 2013, the World Health Organization certified Nigeria Guinea Worm free country.”
He further added that after ending the disease in the country in 2009, The Carter Center signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU with General Gowon and the center in 2010 to work together on the neglected tropical diseases which were eliminated in the 9 states of ABIA, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Edo, Nasarawa and Plateau.
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