Ongoing Transmission of Onchocerca volvulus after 25 Years of Annual Ivermectin Mass Treatments in the Vina du Nord River Valley, in North Cameroon.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recent reports of transmission interruption of Onchocerca volvulus, the causing agent of river blindness, in former endemic foci in the Americas, and more recently in West and East Africa, raise the question whether elimination of this debilitating disease is underway after long-term treatment of the population at risk with ivermectin. The situation in Central Africa has not yet been clearly assessed.

Methods and findings

Entomologic data from two former endemic river basins in North Cameroon were generated over a period of 43 and 48 months to follow-up transmission levels in areas under prolonged ivermectin control. Moreover, epidemiologic parameters of animal-borne Onchocerca spp. transmitted by the same local black fly vectors of the Simulium damnosum complex w

SUBMITTER: Eisenbarth A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4771805 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature