Director of guinea worm eradication at The Carter Center Adam Weiss gives interview on Carter’s impact

Published 7:37 pm Thursday, January 23, 2025

Adam Weiss began his journey towards guinea worm eradication by joining the Peace Corps. “In 2003 I joined the United States Peace Corps, and I was assigned to be a water and sanitation volunteer in HIV-AIDS education.”

Weiss had visited East Africa when as a university student. “I wanted to go back to Africa, because I had spent time in East Africa when I was in university. But Peace Corps had the infinite wisdom of not sending me back to East Africa where I wanted to go, but sent me to West Africa, and they sent me to a village in Northern Ghana that I didn’t know was endemic for guinea worm.”

It was Weiss’s first introduction to the parasite. “The village that they assigned me to the first year I was there, there were 100 people with guinea worm.”

Weiss’s work in the Peace Corp supported the Carter Center. “As a Peace Corps volunteer, I was effectively supporting the surveillance system and health education system that the Carter Center supports with the Ministry of Health.”

He traced his history to becoming director of the eradication program at the Carter Center. “So I started to interact with some of the local Carter Center staff, and so we all kind of got to know each other, and then I learned that they were looking for people to help support them.”

When Weiss finished his service with the Peace Corp, The Carter Center offered him the opportunity to stay. “So I lived in Northern Ghana for seven years, five of which was with the Carter Center, specifically as a consultant. And then I moved to Ethiopia and lived there on the border with South Sudan for a couple of years, also working with the Carter Center. And then they provided me an opportunity to be full time, and I moved to Atlanta so I could work full time and then go to school part time and get my Master’s in Public Health degree at Emory.”

Weiss stated the eradication effort for guinea worm was unlike any other. “One of the major challenges is that to prevent this disease, it requires behavior change. And unlike other programs that have sought eradication or achieved eradication, they’ve all had vaccines or some kind of therapeutic treatment, and with guinea worm, there is no therapeutic, there is no vaccine.”

Weiss spoke of the difficulty that can come with changing behavior, even when safety was involved. “So that’s kind of the constant barrier. That being said, communities don’t want guinea worm, so they’re willing to change their behavior. So the other barriers that come into play are oftentimes political in nature. Like, is there the political will, not necessarily from the community, but from the local government.”

Weiss spoke of Carter’s impact as a former President. “What he did is he showed up. And he would not only show up to visit a capital, but he would go out to the communities.”

He recalled one visit in particular. “I remember hearing about one of his visits to Ghana where he told the then head of State JJ Rawlings, this would have been in the late 1980s, 1988 I believe, and he told JJ Rawlings, like, hey, I’m gonna go out to the field. And President Rawlings was like, who is this guy, you know, coming from America? He’s gonna go out to the villages. No, he’s not gonna go. Well, he did go. So of course, the President of the Country had to also go.”

Weiss commented on his ability to work with others. “His legacy is about being able to bring people together.” In addition to his ability to galvanize others to action, Weiss recalled the intensity with which Carter solved problems. “He was damn smart, no question about that, in an intimidating way, smart.”

However, Carter balanced the intensity with which he solved problems with his concern for others. “Every interaction I had with him over the last 20 years, there was no question, even if he asked you a tough question, or you kind of felt like, am I in trouble, it was always like we’re trying to move forward together.”

Weiss also commented on the formation of Carter’s character. “I trust that the experiences he had. . . his whole coming of age life. . .helped support him to develop that character.”

Wiess also spoke of the influence religion had on Carter. “The entire time he’s been in hospice pretty much, having a blanket over him with Psalm 23 written on it.” He summarized Carter’s faith journey. “He never left his faith, and his faith never left him.”