Health Programs

River Blindness Overview

What is the magnitude of the problem?

How is river blindness transmitted?

How is river blindness treated?

How is The Carter Center involved?

Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas

The Carter Center is the sponsoring agency for the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas (OEPA), which works to end illness and transmission of onchocerciasis in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela. Heaquartered in Guatemala, OEPA partners with the ministries of health of the six affected countries in Latin America, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, academic institutions, and independent organizations.
 
In the Americas, 500,000 people are at risk for onchocerciasis, or river blindness,  and 180,000 are infected in endemic nations. Diverse populations and ecosystems are affected by river blindness.

In Guatemala and Mexico, the mestizo and indigenous populations who live on coffee plantations are the most at risk; while in Ecuador and Colombia, the disease has affected those populations living by rivers' shores, primarily people of African and indigenous descent. The nomadic Yanomami population, living in Brazil and Venezuela, is one of the most severely affected groups because their travel throughout the Amazon rainforest places them at continuous risk for exposure.

Since the disease is less widespread in the Americas than Africa, semiannual treatments with Mectizan® (ivermectin), donated by Merck & Co., Inc, over many years can halt transmission of river blindness and improve health by reducing the presence of river blindness larvae in the human body.

Before OEPA started operations in 1993, only 41,911 treatments of Mectizan® were administered throughout Latin America, vastly under serving the populations at risk. However, program efforts have increased distribution considerably.

After several years of monitoring and evaluation of the program, in 2001, the Carter Center's International Task Force for Disease Eradication confirmed that river blindness could be eliminated from the Americas by treating 85 percent or more of infected people with twice annual doses of Mectizan®.

(Read the Final Report of the Conference on the Eradicability of Onchocerciasis.)

Since 2003, the six endemic countries have maintained at least 85 percent treatment coverage, which must be sustained to halt transmission.

To date, as a result of health education and Mectizan® distribution, there has been no new blindness from river blindness. And, in 2007, Colombia became the first country in the world to halt river blindness transmission. A total of six foci and one subfoci of the 13 endemic areas have likely interrupted transmission. 

In 2008, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an urgent call to interrupt the disease's transmission by 2012. (Read the resolution, "Toward the Elimination of Onchocerciasis in the Americas.")

Thanks to these achievements, the Americas will soon free themselves from the threat of this debilitating disease.

March 30, 2009
Milestone Toward Ending River Blindness in the Western Hemisphere by 2012: Escuintla, Guatemala Largest Endemic Area Yet to Stop Transmission
An international team of researchers led by Rodrigo Gonzalez of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala reports that the transmission of onchocerciasis or river blindness has been broken in Escuintla, Guatemala, one of the largest endemic areas in the Western Hemisphere to date to stop the transmission of the parasitic disease.

Oct. 7,  2008
Pan American Health Organization Passes Resolution to Interrupt Transmission of River Blindness in Latin America by 2012
In an effort to eliminate river blindness (onchocerciasis) from the Western Hemisphere, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an urgent call to interrupt the disease's transmission by 2012.

Jan. 30, 2006
Carter Center Realizes $15 Million Challenge Grant for River Blindness
Halting river blindness in the Americas by 2007 has accelerated with the completion of a $15 million challenge grant to The Carter Center. In the fall of 2003, the Carter Center's River Blindness Program estimated it would take approximately $15 million to eliminate river blindness disease from the region by the end of this decade. With support from the Lions Clubs International Foundation, Merck & Co., Inc., and more than 70 other donors, the matching funds were raised four years ahead of the challenge grant deadline.

 

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