Former US President, Jimmy Carter, and partners working with the Carter Center are on the verge of eradicating ‘Guinea worm disease’ - a parasite-borne disease affecting 3.5 million people in 1986 when the global effort to get rid of the disease began.

The Atlanta-based center said that fewer than 5,000 cases of Guinea worm disease - also known as dracunculiasis - remain in six African countries, namely, Mali, Niger, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan and Ethiopia. Craig Withers, director of program support at the center, said erasing the final cases will be tough, but believes it will be accomplished.

The disease, caused by a worm, comes from drinking water infected with larvae. The ingested larvae make their way into body tissue and when mature they erupt from the skin, causing pain, swelling and a chance of infection.

According to the centre, cheap interventions such as hygiene education, using larvicides to kill the worm and distributing inexpensive cloths to help filter parasites from drinking water have cut the infection rate by 99 percent. Health workers from countries and international groups have helped local leaders adopt the new methods for drinking clean water.

If Guinea worm is eradicated, it will be the second known disease to be eliminated from humans; the first being smallpox. According to Carter, “Once we eliminate it from a particular water hole, it is gone forever.”

Two new grants will go toward the goal of completely wiping out the disease. While the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation promised $8 million and another $32 million in matching grants, the United Kingdom promised $15 million.