A-Z Index × Submit A-Z Index × Submit A-Z Index Search Dropdown × Submit Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate Emerging Infectious Disease journal ISSN: 1080-6059 Disclaimer: Early release articles are not considered as final versions. Any changes will be reflected in the online version in the month the article is officially released.
Sherry Richards (1955–), An Everlasting Love , 2024. Acrylic and oil on gallery-wrapped canvas. 36 in x 36 in (91.44 cm x 91.44 cm). Used with permission of the artist.
This month’s cover, An Everlasting Love by Sherri Richards, features former US President Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) and his wife, Rosalynn (1927–2023). The painting, inspired by a photograph Mrs. Richards’ husband, Dr. Frank Richards, took of the Carters on a trip to Ethiopia in 2007, depicts the Carters walking along a red dirt path that winds through a field of flowers and trees.
“The road had a reddish color, like the red clay of Georgia, and President and Mrs. Carter were walking up that road,” Mrs. Richards recalled. “[The Carters] going up the path hand-in-hand was me seeing them walking to heaven together” (S. Richards, pers. comm., interview, 2026 Apr 13).
Mrs. Richards lives in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and holds a fine arts degree from Georgia State University. Her husband, a public health expert on the elimination of parasitic diseases, worked for The Carter Center until he retired in 2024. An Everlasting Love was created that same year in response to an invitation from The Carter Center to donate a painting for its annual donor retreat and auction, as she had done in previous years.
Shown from behind, in casual clothes, the Carters’ figures are instantly familiar. In the background, Mrs. Richards included some of Mrs. Carter’s favorite flowers and butterflies. An Everlasting Love captures the love and kindness for humanity and each other that the Carters shared, which helped lead to their founding of The Carter Center in 1982.
The Carter Center was created with a focus on human rights and peace but also established programs to eliminate or reduce certain tropical diseases because the Carters championed health as a fundamental human right. Since its founding, The Carter Center has improved the lives of millions of people affected by diseases neglected by public health systems around the world. The Carter Center’s first executive director, appointed in 1986, was Dr. William Foege (1936–2026); Carter had appointed Dr. Foege director of the then-named Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 1977, during his presidency.
In the history of public health, only 2 diseases have been globally eradicated. First was smallpox in 1980, during Dr. Foege’s tenure at CDC and in which he had a critical role; that accomplishment is heralded as one of mankind’s greatest achievements. The second was rinderpest, a devastating veterinary disease with high mortality rates in cattle and wildlife, declared eradicated in 2011. Eradication of smallpox and rinderpest permanently relieved the world of 2 deadly infectious threats. Now, thanks to the work of President Carter and The Carter Center, another centuries-old illness might soon be added to that short list: dracunculiasis, also known as Guinea worm disease.
Guinea worm disease, a tropical disease of poverty, is caused by the nematode Dracunculus medinensis. Humans contract infections when they drink water contaminated with copepod crustaceans infected with Guinea worm larvae. When the copepod is digested,…