President Carter championed the global effort to eradicate Guinea wormdisease from 1986 until his death in December 2024
ByDr. Tim Sandle
EDITOR AT LARGE SCIENCE
September 10, 2025
Jimmy Carter, seen here in 1991, is receiving hospice care at home - Copyright AFP Mahmud TURKIA
Jimmy Carter achieved many things through his long career. Arguably, some of his greatest achievements have occurred during his post-presidential period, especially activities linked to healthcare,
“The President and The Dragon” is a powerful new documentary chronicling former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s decades-long fight to eradicate an ancient parasite. The movie has set an October 1st, 2025 release date, coinciding with what would have been President Carter’s 101st birthday. The film will debut on-demand across Amazon, Hoopla, and Verizon Fios, with additional platforms to follow.
President Carter championed the global effort to eradicate Guinea wormdisease from 1986 until his death in December 2024. Across human history, the disease has ravaged human populations for thousands of years (reference to the disease is documented in the Egyptian medical Ebers Papyrus, dating from around 1550 BCE.)
READ MORE: World records fewest Guinea worm cases in history
As Digital Journal has previously summarised, the disease in question is unpleasant. Guinea Worm Disease is also called Dracunculiasis. The condition is an infection by the guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis.) The guinea worm is a nematode and it is among the longest nematodes infecting humans. Females are up to 60 centimetres in length; males are far smaller at only 3 centimetres in length.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter co-founded The Carter Center in 1982 with the purpose of advancing human rights, alleviating human suffering, and improving the quality of life for people around the world.
“The President and the Dragon,” directed by Waleed Eltayeb and Ian D. Murphy, tells how President Carter and an eclectic group of public health professionals, local volunteers, and ex-child soldiers braved treacherous terrain and armed conflicts to reduce Guinea worm cases from 3.5 million in 1986 to just 15 last year.
“My grandfather desperately wanted to outlive Guinea worm, and he came remarkably close to doing it,” says Jason Carter, Carter Center board chair, lawyer, and the eldest grandson of President Carter. “He witnessed firsthand what freeing a community from this terrible disease meant to people’s daily lives, and The Carter Center will keep working until there are zero cases.”
Eltayeb, a Sudanese filmmaker based in Dubai, travelled with his crew to remote locations on the African continent where the waterborne disease remains endemic, capturing the difficult — and often dangerous —work of the “Guinea worm warriors” working on the frontlines of public health. Guinea worm disease is close to becoming the second human disease ever eradicated, following smallpox.
“This is a story of hope, and of the power of ordinary people in even the most isolated communities to improve their lives,” Eltayeb said. “There is no vaccine for Guinea worm disease, so progress comes one village at a time when people work together in places like South Sudan and Chad. It’s a story the world needs to hear now more than ever.”
The film is produced by Touchline’s Shaun McGuckian and Eltayeb, co-produced by Brave Road’s Andrew Bishop (ESPN’s “26.2 to Life”) and Tim Byron Owen (“The Matchstick Man”), and distributed worldwide by Buffalo 8.
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