East Africa - In a first for East Africa, scientists find evidence that onchocerciasis (river blindness) may be eliminated after 14 years of long-term mass drug treatment

Citation

(2013), "East Africa - In a first for East Africa, scientists find evidence that onchocerciasis (river blindness) may be eliminated after 14 years of long-term mass drug treatment", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 26 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHCQA.06226gaa.011

East Africa - In a first for East Africa, scientists find evidence that onchocerciasis (river blindness) may be eliminated after 14 years of long-term mass drug treatment

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From:

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Volume 26, Issue 7

Keywords: Onchocerciasis and community based drug treatmen, Disease transmission reduction in East Africa, Public healthcare programmes and parasitic disease

New research provides the first evidence in East Africa that long-term community-based drug treatment alone can interrupt transmission of onchocerciasis, a parasitic disease commonly known as river blindness. The study finds that after eight years (beginning in 1998) of treating residents annually with the anti-worming medicine ivermectin, followed by six years of semi-annual treatment with the drug, there is no evidence of the disease or its transmission in or around the Nile River town of Abu Hamed in Northern Sudan.

“This is the first report of elimination in a major isolated area and a big step toward eliminating river blindness in East Africa,” said lead author Tarig Higazi, PhD, of Ohio University’s Zanesville campus and Tropical Diseases Institute. “While previous studies have demonstrated that long-term annual or semiannual mass treatment with ivermectin have eliminated the disease in the Americas and West African nations of Mali and Senegal, these data show that we are further shrinking its reach by interrupting transmission and eliminating the disease in the northernmost endemic area of the world.”

Higazi and his colleagues at The Carter Centre and the Sudan Ministry of Health found during their assessment in 2011 that there were no signs of skin disease in 536 Abu Hamed residents, no evidence of parasite DNA in the more than 17,500 black flies collected, and no evidence of disease exposure in more than 6,700 school children who are considered sentinels for disease infection. The assessment met the World Health Organisation (WHO) criteria for declaring disease transmission interrupted. Mass treatment was halted in 2012, and the WHO is expected to declare river blindness eliminated in 2015 in this area, once three years of post-treatment surveillance are completed.

According to the WHO, more than 18 million people worldwide are infected with onchocerciasis, with nearly 99 per cent of those cases in Africa.

The parasitic disease - which can cause severe skin ailments, debilitating itching, and blindness – is transmitted by black flies (genus Simulium) that breed in fast-moving rivers or streams. When a fly bites a human, it deposits larvae that mature into adult worms in the body. Ivermectin is effective at stemming the worm infestation and reducing the severity of the infection.

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