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WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (RHC) — The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is trying to completely eliminate onchocerciasis, known as river blindness, from America, a disease that still affects about 28,000 people after decades of confrontation.
It is a parasitic disease caused by very small worms that can cause skin and eye damage, including irreversible blindness.
It is transmitted through the bite of infected blackflies that breed along fast-flowing rivers and streams near remote rural villages, which is why it is also known as river blindness.
Although there is no vaccine to prevent infection, treatment with the antiparasitic drug ivermectin every six months for 12 to 15 years can help stop transmission.
After decades of concerted action led by PAHO and its partners, the Americas has largely eradicated the disease, with only local transmission remaining in parts of the Amazon.
In the 1990s, this disease was endemic in six countries in America, and about 540,000 people were at risk of contracting the disease.
Between 2013 and 2016, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Guatemala managed to eliminate onchocerciasis.
Efforts are now focused on the remaining Amazon regions, where population dispersal and mobility pose the greatest challenge.
Experts estimate that river blindness currently affects 28,000 indigenous Yanomami people living along the Amazonian border between Brazil and Venezuela. (Source:PL)