The Carter Center to Receive 2006 Gates Award for Global Health – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today that The Carter Center has been selected to receive the 2006 Gates Award for Global Health, in recognition of its pioneering work to fight neglected diseases such as Guinea worm, river blindness, trachoma, schistosomiasis, and lymphatic filariasis.

The $1 million Gates Award—the world’s largest prize for international health—honors extraordinary efforts to improve health in developing countries. The Carter Center was selected from more than 60 nominees by a jury of international health leaders.  Bill Gates, Sr., co-chair of the Gates Foundation, will present the award to John Moores, chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Carter Center, at the Global Health Council’s 33rd Annual International Conference on Global Health in Washington, D.C. on June 1, 2006. Former President Jimmy Carter, founder of the Carter Center, will speak at the conference’s closing plenary session on June 2.

“For more than two decades, The Carter Center has worked to control and eradicate diseases that afflict the poorest of the poor,” said Bill Gates, Sr. “I have seen first-hand the extraordinary impact of The Carter Center’s health programs. This award is a tribute not only to the leadership of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, but also to the Center’s very competent and dedicated staff.”

Founded in 1982, The Carter Center is a nongovernmental organization dedicated to advancing human rights and alleviating human suffering worldwide. One program, the Carter Center Guinea Worm Eradication Program, has helped to reduce cases of the disease from an estimated 3.5 million in 1986 to just 10,674 in 2005. Guinea worm is expected to become the second disease, after smallpox, to be eradicated worldwide, and the Center also expects to eliminate river blindness in the Americas by 2010.

“I am honored to accept this award on behalf of our staff, partners, and volunteers, and most importantly, the people we serve,” said Jimmy Carter. “Together with our partners, we can win the battle against preventable diseases and unnecessary suffering.”

The Carter Center’s global health achievements to date include:

• Reducing the incidence of Guinea worm disease by 99.5%
• Delivering more than 75 million treatments for river blindness
• Establishing more than 4,000 community-based prevention programs for trachoma, the largest preventable cause of blindness
• Leading campaigns to control and treat lymphatic filariasis and schistosomiasis
• Training health workers needed to serve 90% of Ethiopia’s population

“Before The Carter Center began its work, diseases like Guinea worm and river blindness were seen as intractable—a fact of life in the world’s poorest countries,” said Dr. Nils Daulaire, President and CEO of the Global Health Council. “The Carter Center has turned conventional wisdom on its head, and reminded the world that seemingly impossible obstacles can be overcome with the right combination of innovation, dedication, and community involvement.” The Global Health Council coordinates the selection process and presentation for the Gates Award.

About the Gates Award for Global Health
The Gates Award for Global Health was established by Bill and Melinda Gates in 2000 to recognize exemplary work in international health.

Previous recipients of the Gates Award include the African Medical and Research Foundation for improving health in some of Africa’s poorest communities (2005); the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee for community-based health programs (2004); the Brazilian National AIDS Program for its integrated approach to HIV prevention and treatment (2003); the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International for contributions to polio eradication (2002); and the ICDDR,B Center for Health and Population Research in Bangladesh for the discovery of a rehydration therapy that has saved millions of lives (2001).