Carter focusing on malaria

OUANAMINTHE, Haiti — Former President Jimmy Carter traveled to Haiti and the Dominican Republic to meet political leaders, health workers and malaria victims Wednesday in hopes of jump-starting efforts to eradicate the disease in the Caribbean.

The battle against the mosquito-borne disease in the neighboring countries has been frustrating, with health officials complaining of a lack of cooperation between both country's governments.

Carter said on his visit to Ouanaminthe and to Dajabon in the Dominican Republic, just across a river border separating the two countries, that he hopes to expand a $200,000 pilot project established in those towns by the nonprofit Carter Center to curb malaria's spread.

The project's funding runs out early next year, but Carter said he hopes governments, nonprofit health groups and private foundations will pick up the tab for a broader effort.

"One of the most important developments has been the new cooperation between the two countries," Carter said while touring a Haitian hospital that treats many malaria victims. "And for the first time in history, they are targeting the complete elimination of the disease instead of just treating sick people."

An estimated 30,000 people in Haiti and several thousand more across the border suffer each year from malaria, which causes high fevers and flu-like symptoms that kill more than one million people each year, mostly in Africa.

It was the second visit to Haiti in a week by a former U.S. president. Bill Clinton, named U.N. special envoy to Haiti in May, attended an investment conference last Thursday in Haiti's capital and spent Friday promoting its tourist sites.

Health officials say a 10-year, Haiti-wide program to eliminate malaria by 2020 would likely cost $200 million. Another $50 million would be needed to wipe out lymphatic filariasis, another painful illness carried by mosquitoes that can swell limbs to grotesque proportions.

That price tag may seem daunting, particularly in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. But Carter, who was quickly surrounded at each stop by dozens of Haitians and Dominicans seeking a glimpse of him, said the costs to eradicate the disease pale in comparison to pricier health initiatives in wealthier nations.

"A tiny bit of money can completely eradicate these diseases," he said.