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Clinical trial of river blindness drug is launched in three African countries
A clinical trial of a drug that can eliminate onchocerciasis or river blindness is being launched in three African countries.
The drug moxidectin is being investigated for its potential to kill or sterilize the adult worms which cause river blindness in African countries for centuries. The trial is being conducted in Ghana, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and will involve fifteen hundred people.
The development of the drug involves a collaboration of the World Health Organization's Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Boakye Boatuin, Research Manager of the TDR programme says more than 100 million people almost all of them in Africa, are at risk of contracting river blindness.
"The manifestation of the disease is usually in two forms. You can have a skin lesion and you can also get an eye lesion. It usually starts with itchiness of the skin which in some cases is so devastating that people may be tempted to commit suicide. You can also have acute skin lesions, rashes etc., ending up in hyper pigmentation which is usually unsightly and because of this you get stigma associated with the disease."
River blindness is currently controlled with the drug ivermectin. But ivermectin only kills the larvae of the fly that causes the disease, and not the adult worms, requiring treatments over more than 10 years. If the trial drug moxidectin kills not only the larvae but sterilizes or kills the adult worms, it could potentially require only six annual rounds of treatment.
Diane Bailey, United Nations.
duration: 1'43"
