COTE D'IVOIRE: River blindness parasitic disease is back
Pastor Dale Morgan
*COTE D'IVOIRE: River blindness parasitic disease is back*
24 Dec 2007 18:12:37 GMT
Source: IRIN
ABIDJAN, 24 December 2007 (IRIN) - The parasitic disease river
blindness, once thought to have been eradicated from Côte d'Ivoire, has
re-emerged in some regions following years of armed conflict that wiped
out mechanisms for surveillance and control, health officials say.
The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002 closed its West Africa
programme to eliminate river blindness, or onchocerciasis, as a public
health threat. That was also the year an armed rebellion divided the
country.
Studies carried out from July to September 2007 following incidental
reports of cases in forest areas in south-western Côte d'Ivoire found
that 14.29 percent of under-five children there suffer from onchocerciasis.
"These results show that the situation has become alarming in these
zones, where the disease had been eradicated," Health Minister Remi
Allah Kouadio told reporters on 19 December, following an onchocerciasis
conference in Brussels.
The disease is caused by a worm transmitted through the bites of
infected blackflies, according to WHO. The flies carry larvae from human
to human; they mature into adult worms under human skin. After mating, a
female fly releases up to 1,000 tiny worms per day, known as
microfilariae. These cause a variety of conditions including blindness,
rashes and lesions.
When WHO ended its West Africa river blindness programme in 2002,
governments were to carry on surveillance and detection using
infrastructure developed with WHO's support.
But in Côte d'Ivoire the health ministry's surveillance activities
stopped in many areas due to the destruction of infrastructure in
fighting just after the rebellion, Health Minister Kouadio said.
The government plans to reactivate its programme to fight river
blindness, starting with additional studies to determine precisely which
areas are affected. No date is set yet for the launch, according to
health ministry spokesperson Siméon N'Da.
WHO officials could not be reached for comment.
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