Elimination of onchocerciasis in Africa by 2025: the need for a broad perspective

In response to the recent publication “Is onchocerciasis elimination in Africa feasible by 2025: a perspective based on lessons learnt from the African control programmes” by Dadzie et al., it is important to clarify and highlight the positive and unequivocal research and operational contributions from the American experience towards the worldwide elimination of human onchocerciasis (river blindness).

Main text

The strategies of twice or more rounds of mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin per year, as well as the use of OV-16 serology have allowed four American countries to be verified by World Health Organization to have eliminated transmission of Onchocerca volvulus, the etiological agent. These advances were also implemented in Sudan and Uganda; currently, both are the only African countries where ivermectin MDA was safely stopped in several transmission zones.

Conclusions

Programmatic treatment and evaluation approaches, pioneered in the Americas, are the most efficient among the existing tools for elimination, and their broader use could catalyze the successful elimination of this disease in Africa.

Ed Cupp, Mauricio Sauerbrey, Vitaliano Cama, Mark Eberhard, Patrick J. Lammie and Thomas R. Unnasch. Infect Dis Poverty. 2019 Jul 15;8(1):50. doi: 10.1186/s40249-019-0557-1.