Category Archives: Blindness

Adiós! Goodbye, oncho! Mexico joins two other countries in ending onchocerciasis in LAC

Blindness, END7, Latin America and the Caribbean, NTDs, Onchocerciasis, PAHO, River blindness, WHO, , , , , ,
Mission to verify the elimination of onchocerciasis in Ecuador. PAHO/WHO, 2014

Mission to verify the elimination of onchocerciasis in Ecuador. PAHO/WHO, 2014

I can’t wait to spread the news. The Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region is one step closer to seeing the end of onchocerciasis (also referred to as river blindness): Mexico has become the third country in the world to officially wipe out this disease!

The drive for progress is much of what motivated me during my time as the Director of the Pan American Health Organization, the WHO Regional Office for the Americas. I am excited to continue celebrating these milestones as Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Special Envoy, and a life-long advocate for public health.

Earlier this year, I wrote about 7 achievable victories in the fight against NTDs that I hope to see accomplished in 2015. Many of these wishes are coming true.

This week, I am filled with the joyful sense of pride in the accomplishment of Mexico and its partners as I check off Mexico’s certification of onchocerciasis elimination from my wish list. Mexico’s success builds off of Colombia and Ecuador’s certification in 2013 and 2014, respectively, and gives me even more confidence that we will soon see news of a LAC region completely free of onchocerciasis.

Onchocerciasis is a devastatingly debilitating parasitic disease that causes itchiness, rashes, and eye problems, eventually leading to permanent blindness. The parasite is transmitted to humans by the bite of a black fly, which breeds in fast moving rivers, increasing the risk of blindness in nearby communities. What’s more, the disease causes a terrible ripple effect by pulling kids out of school to care for their blind elders, reducing economic productivity, and causing families to move out of fertile river valleys, decreasing agricultural outputs in already impoverished areas.

This momentous occasion moves the LAC region one step closer to eliminating the disease entirely—Guatemala has already submitted a request to WHO to verify elimination, and I hope to soon see more results from the enormous, highly coordinated, south-south cooperative effort between Brazil and Venezuela to stop transmission in the Yanomami communities along their borders.

We should all celebrate this official announcement, and we must particularly congratulate Mexico and the many partners that have been working to control this problem for decades and moved toward accomplishing elimination with new tools and new partners for the last fifteen years. 

Eliminating this disease requires unwavering determination. The first step in the elimination process is at least two years of mass drug administration, in which entire communities who are at risk of onchocerciasis are administered Mectizan (ivermectin) every six months. Merck has made an unprecedented pledge to donate Mectizan to everyone in need, for as long as needed. President Jimmy Carter and the Carter´s Center program (OEPA – Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas) have been instrumental, joining PAHO/WHO as well as the communities and health workers in a successful dream team. You can see President Carter’s , congratulating partners for their hard-earned accomplishments.

Once large-scale programs are complete, treatments are delivered to individuals on an as-needed basis. Communities are monitored for an additional twelve years to make sure that transmission of this disease has been interrupted. Finally, after treatment and monitoring, countries stop the treatment intervention and watch for three years to ensure that there is no resurgence in transmission, and then apply for WHO certification that elimination has been achieved.

I was thrilled to be able to celebrate the long-term dedication and resulting accomplishment of all partners contributing to this milestone at an event at PAHO Headquarters last week. Health Ministers from the countries that have eliminated or will soon eliminate river blindness, technical advisors, and global policy leaders were specially recognized for the recent successes and spur motivation to run the race through the last mile all around the world. I was particularly moved when Dr. Etienne, Director of PAHO/WHO, when she received the award. The outstanding accomplishment of the countries in the Americas comes at an excellent time, now that NTDs are officially identified in the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals. The LAC region has hit the ground running.

Dr. Mirta Roses Periago is the Director Emeritus of PAHO/WHO and a Special Envoy for the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases

Success in combating NTDs means community ownership

Blindness, NGOs, Onchocerciasis, River blindness, sitesavers

By Simon Bush, Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases at Sightsavers

“The neglected tropical disease (NTD) agenda would not have been feasible without the Community Directed Treatment with Ivermectin (CDTI) framework.”

Mamu Jacu from Kaduna State in Nigeria receiving her Mectizan tablets. Credit: Kate Holt/Sightsavers.

This is the conclusion of a recent paper commissioned by Sightsavers on combating onchocerciasis – or river blindness. What it means in less formal terms is that involving communities in the distribution of river blindness treatments has proven to be effective, sustainable and a method that can be used to combat other diseases.  What it also means is the role played by non-governmental development organisations (NGDOs), such as Sightsavers, is fundamental to tackling, and ultimately eliminating, NTDs.

The river blindness tale has been told many times before, and readers of this blog may well be familiar with its treatment, Mectizan® (ivermectin*), which is donated for mass distribution by global pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Inc. (known as MSD in the UK). But at Sightsavers we wanted to show another side of the story. After nearly 60 years of working in Africa to alleviate river blindness, we felt it was time to take stock of how NGDOs have performed, and ensure that by looking back, we are heading in the right direction in the future – especially as the scientific evidence shows that we have moved from the control of the disease to the elimination of its transmission.

The paper, ’Empowering communities in combating blindness and the role of NGOs’, reviews published literature and previously unpublished documents relating to approaches to river blindness in Africa during the early 1990s. Through four case studies, it describes the challenges organisations have faced when trying to encourage affected communities to manage their own treatment programmes. This was the only way those trying to tackle river blindness felt ongoing action could be sustained for 20 years or more – eventually leading to elimination. Continue reading →

President Yoweri Museveni Launches Health Program to Eliminate River Blindness in Uganda

Africa, Blindness, Onchocerciasis, River blindness

The Government of Uganda has recently launched a health program to eliminate river blindness in the country. The implementation of a mass-drug administration initiative to combat this neglected tropical disease (NTD) is currently the work of President Yoweri Museveni.

Onchocerciasis, or river blindness is the world’s fourth leading cause of preventable blindness, infecting at least 37 million people living near the rivers and fast-moving streams of sub-Saharan Africa. It is spread through the bites of a small black fly that breeds in rapidly flowing waters along fertile riverbanks. This disease leads to visual impairment or blindness, skin disease, and debilitating itching. River blindness has devastating socioeconomic consequences, because it debilitates its victim and stunts economic capacity and development.

The health program to eliminate river blindness is being undertaken by the Ugandan Ministry of Health. It targets river blindness amongst children over five years of age in of Acholi, a region that for decades has been burdened by the disease. With this initiative there is a wave of new hope as the introduction of the new drug, Ivermectin has already begun to re-energize the government’s commitment to eliminate this deadly disease. President Museveni has also urged Acholi residents to “mercilessly” take the drugs, saying Uganda can, “wipe out this river blindness disease because it is not like HIV/Aids.” The river blindness initiative is tied to other health projects in the country, such as nodding disease, mass measles, and immunization programs.

Click here to learn more about river blindness.

Click to learn how you can help fight NTDs

A Global Strategy to Eliminate Blinding Trachoma, A Disease Targeted by END7

Blindness, NTDs, Trachoma, Vision, , , , , ,

By: Elizabeth Kurylo, Communications manager, International Trachoma Initiative

Eliminating a disease is no small task. It helps to have a detailed plan. Partners working to eliminate blinding trachoma, one of the seven neglected tropical diseases targeted by , have such a plan. It’s called 2020 INSight: The End in Sight.

Produced by the International Coalition for Trachoma Control (ICTC), 2020 INSight is a global strategic plan with crucial next steps toward trachoma elimination by 2020.More than 2 million people are either blind or suffer excruciating pain because of trachoma. It makes one person experience severe sight loss every four minutes and blinds four people every hour.  Over 4.6 million are in the final, painful stages of this eye disease and require surgery to prevent them from going blind. It is endemic in at least 59 countries, in areas with limited access to water and sanitation.

A coordinated effort by governments, nongovernmental organizations, donors and other stakeholders is urgently needed to achieve the goal. Crucial next steps include the following:

  • Survey districts where trachoma is suspected to be endemic, so intervention can begin;
  • Dramatically improve access to clean water and latrines;
  • Increase global funding for trachoma control, including implementation of the SAFE strategy (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness, Environmental improvement);
  • Train teachers and other community leaders about facial cleanliness and better hygiene so they can spread the message in their communities;
  • Quickly address the backlog of 4.6 million people who need surgery to prevent blindness;
  • Identify support for more mass drug administration (MDA) programs to provide about 380 million more antibiotic treatments.

More than 80 percent of the burden of active trachoma is concentrated in 14 countries, where immediate action is needed. Eliminating the disease in Africa alone would boost the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) 20-30 percentage points based on conservative annual productivity loss estimates.

Since 1998, Pfizer Inc has donated more than 225 million doses of the antibiotic Zithromax® to treat and prevent blinding trachoma. The International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) manages the distribution of the medicine.

Get your copy of 2020 INSight at the ICTC website.