Jimmy Carter, pictured in 2016, is the longest-living former US president. (Photo: BBC).

South Sudan is close to eradicating Guinea worm transmission and that milestone is largely credited to The Carter Center – a charity of 39th U.S. President and Noble Peace Price winner Jimmy Carter – who died on Sunday aged 100 years.

Former president’s foundation – The Carter Center transformed health sectors across the world by sparing millions of people from Guinea worm, river blindness and other preventable diseases.

The Center has also been supporting populations in South Sudan since 1986 when the country was part of Sudan, to assist in resolving conflicts, negotiating and preserving peace, and eliminating devastating neglected diseases including Guinea worm.

On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in South Sudan paid tribute to President Carter, acknowledging his charity’s efforts to help combat neglected tropical diseases in the country.

“At the U.S. Embassy in Juba, we join in mourning the passing of former President Jimmy Carter. President Carter visited South Sudan in 2011 to observe the referendum,” the mission said in a statement.

“Through the Carter Center, he led the effort to eradicate Guinea worm, addressing one of the most acute health needs of the people of South Sudan.”

Following the initiation of the Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program in 1995, the raging civil war impeded access to many Guinea worm-endemic areas, especially communities in the south.

In the same year, President Carter brokered a six-month “Guinea worm cease-fire,” allowing health workers to distribute medicine and preventative health measures including cloth water filters, ivermectin for river blindness, childhood immunizations, and vitamin A.

During the cease-fire, the Guinea worm program was able to access more than 2,000 Guinea worm-endemic villages and distribute more than 200,000 cloth filters.

The program continued to build on this initial success even as conflict resumed, distributing an additional 600,000 cloth filters over the next four years leading to sharp decline in cases.

In 2001, The Carter Center and its partners spearheaded the Sudan Pipe Filter Project, which worked to produce, assemble, and distribute more than 9 million pipe filters, which help ensure that drinking water was free of tiny water fleas (copepods) carrying Guinea worm larvae.

So far, South Sudan is close to ending Guinea worm transmission and the country reported only two cases in 2023.

Further, The Carter Center observed the 2010 Sudanese general elections and the January 2011 referendum on the self-determination for South Sudan in what was one of its largest election observation missions ever to help support the critical vote.

Following the 2010 general elections and 2011 referendum, The Carter Center also maintained a presence in the Sudan and South Sudan to observe each country’s political environment and transition.

In South Sudan, the Center maintained its presence after the referendum to observe, analyze, and comment on the drafting of a transitional constitution as well as critical pieces of legislation that would become the backbone of the world’s newest democracy: the political parties act and national elections act.