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Onchocerciasis campaign ends successfully
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OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – After nearly 30 years of work to eliminate river blindness in West Africa, the World Health Organization’s Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP) ended Dec. 6. The campaign was launched to eliminate river blindness as a public health hazard. It was also designed to assist countries in West Africa to develop a system of monitoring and preventing river blindness and other diseases.
OCP initially began with control programs to eliminate the black fly. Efforts included spraying 1.3 million square kilometers with larvicide. Volunteers also collected and monitored flies.
When the program began in 1974, almost 10% of the population was completely blind, and 30% had severe vision problems. Two hundred and fifty thousand kilometers of river valley farmland had been abandoned – an economic loss of $30 million a year.
In 1988, Merck donated invermectin, an anti-parasite drug. Volunteers drove annually to remote locations to distribute the pills until the communities took over this portion of the program.
Now, 28 years later, volunteers are estimated to have prevented 600,000 cases of river blindness and have enabled farmers to return to the 25 million hectares of fertile land along the rivers in that area. This is enough land to grow food for 17 million people, officials said.
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