It’s a small but important victory. Colombia has become the first country to eliminate river blindness, a disease affecting some 18 million people across more than 30 countries in Africa and South America.
River blindness is caused by a parasitic filarial worm, Onchocerca volvulus. Symptoms include intense itching and eye lesions, making it a leading cause of visual impairment and permanent blindness in the tropics.
The worm is spread between people by a species of blackfly. The authorities in Colombia managed to break this cycle by giving communities in affected areas the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin every six months for 12 years.
“This is a historic milestone,” says Mark Taylor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK. But he says that elimination may be harder in African countries, where co-infection with another parasite can result in severe side effects following drug treatment.
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This article will appear in print under the headline “Eye disease beaten”
