UPPER WEST SIDE — Former President Jimmy Carter helped open a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History Monday that focuses on eradicating preventable diseases across the world.
"Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease" focuses on teaching the public about diseases scientists believe can be erased from the globe, including polio, river blindness, malaria, elephantiasis and Guinea worm disease.
Carter, 90, said he made it his mission over the past 30 years to go after Guinea worm disease through his Carter Center.
"[The disease is] horribly, almost unbearably painful...it's an unforgettable experience when you see someone suffering from it," said Carter at the exhibit's opening Monday, describing the process by which worms invade the body and emerge through blisters in the skin. The disease is transmitted by ingesting parasites from unclean water sources.
In 1986, there were 3 million cases, and today only 126 remain, all in sub-Saharan Africa, he said.
New water filtration systems and wells, education campaigns and even cash rewards have made a serious dent in the number of cases, Carter said. But he added that more public education and funding are needed to reach the goal of making Guinea worm disease the second completely eradicated disease in human history, after smallpox.
"It's important for the public to realize these diseases still exist," said Donald Hopkins, the vice president for health programs at the Carter Center.
This video shows how scientists track and combat Guinea worm disease in a Sudanese village:
Through photos, diagrams, maps and videos, the exhibit seeks to share how far scientists and aid workers have come in the fight against preventable diseases and the strategies that have worked — and also how far we have to go in eradicating diseases like malaria.
A child dies of malaria every minute and the disease is still prevalent in 100 countries, the exhibit explains.
In addition to explanations of how diseases are transmitted and spread, the exhibit also seeks to humanize its victims through dozens of photos taken by Carter Center staff in their work across India, Latin America and Africa.
Posing Monday by a graphic showing the dramatic reductions already achieved in the spread of Guinea worm disease, Carter smiled.
However, he said, "[eradication] is a very slow process and those last cases are very hard to detect."
The exhibit officially opens Jan. 13 and runs through July 12, 2015 at the museum before traveling to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta.
