A guy recognised as “important” in eradicating one fatal disease is now on the verge of eradicating another. Dr Hopkins worked relentlessly for years to eventually eradicate smallpox, which had killed millions and been the scourge of human civilisation for centuries.
Deadly disease
The disease was once termed “the most dreadful of all ministers of death,” killing 300 million people in the twentieth century alone. At 26, the newlywed doctor found himself amid a smallpox epidemic in Sierra Leone in the late 1960s. He and his colleagues could reach people in the country’s most remote corners by mass immunisation at a rate of 1,000 jabs per hour. They eventually beat the breakout thanks to this ground-breaking strategic plan.
He also led a heroic attempt to contain an outbreak that peaked at 188,000 cases in India in 1974. Working with the bureaucratic aspects of several agencies was difficult and often confusing.
Achievements of Dr Hopkins
Hopkins is a world-renowned infectious disease expert who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in the early 1980s for his book, Princes and Peasants: Smallpox in History. Dr Hopkins has recently shifted his attention to the mysterious Guinea worm illness; after realising that providing clean water to rural villages was critical to combating the parasite, he’s been working on a cure for 30 years and has achieved significant success.
Guinea worm disease
Guinea worm disease is contracted by drinking polluted water containing Guinea worm larvae. After consuming water, the worm hatches in the body and spends a year growing up to a metre in length. As it seeks to exit the body, the worm coils up, forming a blister; movies show the long, thin parasite being pulled out of a hole in the human body (we don’t recommend Googling this one). According to Hopkins, it is “rarely fatal” but “searingly painful.”
It can take weeks or even months for the worm to be completely expelled from the body. Because there is no therapy, people infected frequently find themselves wrapping the worm around a stick as it is removed.
Drinking clean water, which can be difficult in some parts of the world, is the simplest way to avoid contracting the sickness. However, there are cultural concerns in many nations where cases have been reported, so it’s not as simple as installing water filters and educating folks about the dangers of consuming bacteria-ridden drinking water.
Worldwide cases of smallpox
When Dr Hopkins began working on the case with the support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some of the affected countries were decimated by war, and AIDS had taken hold of many communities-but. He’s still seen a worldwide case count drop from 3.5 million in 1986 to only 27 in 2020. I had heard all that about smallpox when people told me, ‘You’re not going to be able to eradicate Guinea Worm sickness.’ “So I simply shrugged,” he told Atlanta Magazine in 2017.
Dr Hopkins has worked closely with former US President Jimmy Carter over the years, and Carter stated in 2015. I would like the last Guinea worm to die before I do.”He might just see that happen thanks to people like Dr Dan Hopkins; finally, eradicating Guinea worm disease remains a priority for Carter, whose organisation. The Carter Center, continues to fund and support this and other causes worldwide.
Work history
Dr Hopkins is one of the few heroes in my life. President Jimmy Carter paid tribute to a great leader in disease eradication whose successes included a pivotal part in the abolition of smallpox. He was one of ten children and the son of a carpenter and a seamstress. He got a scholarship to Morehouse College at 15—he had to sacrifice his paper route—and went on to get a medical degree at the University of Chicago before joining HSPH. After serving as Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He joined the Carter Center in Atlanta. Where he has led health programmes since 1997. His book, Princes and Peasants: Smallpox in History, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. He has received other honours, including a MacArthur “genius” grant.
Hopkins’ current focus is eradicating Guinea worm sickness, also known as dracunculiasis—a parasitic infection so terrible that it has been dubbed the fiery serpent. The target is within grasp. There were an estimated 3.5 million Guinea worm disease patients when he began his studies in 1986. There are now fewer than 600, and for the first time, no cases were reported worldwide in January 2013. “I’m becoming increasingly certain that the sickness will survive me,” the 71-year-old Hopkins recently told the New York Times.
