UN / RIVER BLINDNESS

Evidence in a published UN study today says eliminating river blindness is feasible with ivermectin, a commonly-used drug that has contributed to significantly controlling the disease in endemic countries. FILE

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:16
• Production Date: 21 July 2009
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION - WHO
• Subject Topical: DISEASE PREVENTION; DISEASE CONTROL; DISEASES
• Geographic Subject: AFRICA
• MAMS Id: U090721d

Description

STORY: UN / RIVER BLINDNESS
TRT: 1.16
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: NATS

DATELINE: FILE

Shotlist

FILE - DATE UNKNOWN, NIGERIA

1. Various shots, village
2. Wide shot, blind people with river blindness
3. Wide shot, boy guiding blind man
4. Close up, blind man
5. Various shots, patients in community meeting
6. Various shots, community meeting and treatment demonstration
10. Various shots, blind woman being led by child
11. Med shot, man taking medication from box
12. Close up, woman taking medicine
13. Med shot, man taking medicine
14. Various shots, people gathered around volunteer distributing medicine

Storyline

Evidence in a published United Nations study today says eliminating river blindness is feasible with ivermectin, a commonly-used drug that has contributed to significantly controlling the disease in endemic countries.

Over 37 million people, mostly in poor, rural African communities are infected with onchocerciasis, which is often called river blindness because the blackfly which transmits the disease breeds in rivers. Blindness is the most debilitating symptom of this public health threat which also causes skin disease.

Published in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases are the results of a study showing that treatment with ivermectin stopped further infections and transmission in three specific areas of Mali and Senegal where the disease has been endemic.

Merck & Co., Inc., the company that discovered and manufactures ivermectin agreed in 1987 to donate the drug free of charge to countries where river blindness is endemic, resulting in the treatment of over 60 million people in 26 African countries in 2008.

While this enabled the control of river blindness in Africa, it has not been clear whether it could also be used to eliminate infection and transmission to the extent that treatment with ivermectin could be safely stopped, said WHO.

The agency noted that ivermectin kills the larvae but not the adult worms of Onchocerca volvulus, the parasite that causes the disease, so annual or biannual treatments are required to prevent resurgence.

The study shows that after 15 to 17 years of six monthly or annual treatments, only a few infections remained in the human population.

Earlier this month, WHO announced the launch of a clinical trial in three African countries for the drug moxidectin, which is being investigated for its potential to kill or sterilize the adult worms of the parasite that causes river blindness.

If moxidectin kills not only the larvae but also sterilizes or kills the adult worms, it has the potential to interrupt the disease transmission cycle within around six annual rounds of treatment, according to WHO.

The trial involves 1,500 people in Ghana, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and will take place over the next two and a half years.