Onchocerciasis Control Program Ends Its Work in West Africa

For centuries, onchocerciasis – also known as river blindness – has taken the sight of people in West Africa. A debilitating parasitic disease passed through the bite of a black fly, onchocerciasis devastated the lives and livelihoods of farming families in riverside agricultural areas. In 1974, USAID, other donors, and national governments established the Onchocerciasis Control Program in 11 West African countries. The program sprayed larvicides, provided essential drugs through a public-private partnership with the U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck, and strengthened disease surveillance and public health management.

Since the Program’s inception, USAID has been its largest donor, contributing $75 million to the World Bank-administered Onchocerciasis Trust Fund. In December 2002, the Program declared victory and formally ended its work, having dramatically reduced prevalence rates and transmission potential to levels that no longer pose a major public health problem in the program area. As a consequence, more than 40 million people have been protected from onchocerciasis and more than 600,000 cases of blindness have been prevented. In addition to its health impact, the Program helped re-establish agriculture on more than 25 million hectares of arable land once abandoned due to the disease. This has allowed enough new agricultural production to feed an additional 17 million people annually. USAID and other donors continue to support onchocerciasis control efforts in 19 other African countries where the disease remains prevalent.