United Nations Radio

River blindness continues to cause pain and suffering among Africans. The disease is transmitted by the blackfly which breeds in fast flowing rivers. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 100 million people are at risk of infection with river blindness, the overwhelming majority in Africa. But now there is a glimmer of hope that this terrible disease can be eliminated. Diane Bailey has more.

GERRY: Onchocerciasis, better known as river blindness, is spread by a black fly that breeds in fast flowing streams. It's one of the leading causes of blindness in Africa, and it has made life miserable for millions of Africans, says Boakye (BO-AH-CHAY) Boatin, Research Manager for WHO's Special Programme for Research and Training on Tropical Diseases:

Boatin1: 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 hypo- pigmentation which is usually unsightly and because of this you get stigma associated with the disease." Not only that, it also leads to social issues by creating difficulties for marriage.

GERRY: But a drug normally used in animals is being tested to see if it can stop the infection from spreading. Clinical trials of the drug moxidectin are being launched in Ghana, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a collaboration between the World Health Organization and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Henrietta Ukwu, vice-president at Wyeth, says annual doses of ivermectin, the drug currently used to control river blindness, reduces transmission of the disease by killing the eggs, but not the worms that lay the eggs, or microfilaria, in a person's skin.

Ukwu1: Most of the manifestations of this disease are caused by the microfilaria, the young ones. These are released in millions from the adult female worm, and migrate through the skin causing the skin conditions that you've heard about and when they invade the eyes, cause the blindness.

GERRY: Adult worms live in a person's skin for around 14 years, and lay more eggs, requiring annual treatment of ivermectin. Dr. Ukwu says moxidectin could sterilize or even kill the parasite outright.

Ukwu2: Moxidectin has demonstrated in pre-clinical studies to sterilize the adult worm while also killing the microfilaria and therefore has the potential to interrupt transmission of onchocerciasis, speed up its elimination because it attacks the reservoir and therefore may have fewer annual treatment cycles, and ultimately potentially lead to the eradication of this devastating disease.
DIANE/GERRY: Devastating too, economically, since onchocerciasis has driven communities away from fertile riverbed areas where the blackflies breed. WHO's Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, known as TDR, uses an innovative system of community-directed treatment to reach and involve as many of those at risk as possible.

Boatin2: In this particular type of intervention, the community members decide whether they need the treatment or want the treatment at all. They design the delivery approach, whether to do it from house to house or in market places or at a central point. They plan how, when, where and who does the intervention and they select who does the intervention.

GERRY: But still there are challenges. One of the study sites is in Bolahun, Liberia, a battle-scarred village slowly recovering from the war. Fatorma Bolay, WHO's disease prevention and control officer in Liberia, says the drive from the capital Monrovia can take up to 10 hours. But that's not the only hurdle.

Bolay: When we originally planned this project we anticipated in getting assistance from donors for solar power. At the eleventh hour, that offer did not come. We now have to rely on fossil fuels to run our generator which is costing us a lot of money.

GERRY: Installing solar power not only increases the likelihood of success for the clinical trial, but would also lower the cost of future research. In conducting the trials, TDR is also helping to build research capacity for health professionals and strengthen health research in the countries where the trials are taking place. For UN and Africa, this is Gerry Adams reporting.

duration: 4'13"