Human Onchocerciasis among Children and Teenagers in Rural Nigerian Farm Settlement

Burden and factors associated with onchocerciasis transmission among school-aged children after more than 20 years of Community Directed Treatment with Ivermectin in Ulanga district, Tanzania: A school-based cross-sectional study

“…This study reports similar findings to those conducted in Mahenge; an onchocerciasis seroprevalence of 20.7% was observed in Mahenge among children aged 6-10 years, with a pattern of prevalence similar to the one observed in our study according to the area (urban and rural) and age but no significant difference in prevalence according to sex in both settings [13]. The increasing seroprevalence of onchocerciasis according to age was also reported in other studies from African countries, which confirm the cumulative nature of the disease, having a higher prevalence in older children and rural compared to the urbanized areas [20,21]. Even though discordant findings are reported about gender differences in distribution of seroprevalence, a study in Cameroon has also observed lower infection status among girls [22,23], as we did in our study.…”

“…Several factors can explain the mismatch between clinical presentation and seroprevalence. One of these could be the younger age of the participants since the symptoms manifest later in life due to the chronic nature of the disease [21] and the other could be due to the extensive treatment (25 years) with ivermectin in the area that has lowered the microfilaria load associated with the development of symptoms in onchocerciasis infected individuals.…”

Analysis Of Socio-Economic Burden of Onchocerciasis in Amur Community in Imo State, Nigeria

“…According to Adebayo (2014), blind victims are unable to care for their families and those with skin disease suffer symptoms that make it difficult to live a normally. Okoro et al, (2016) reveal that the disease is responsible for poor academic performance and high rate of school drop-out among children who serve as guides for their blind relatives. It also causes low productivity, low income, high health related costs, and gender differences in the stigma associated with onchocercid skin diseases (OSD) on infected adults (Aninakwah-boahene et al, 2014).…”

Management of onchocerciasis among adolescents in nkwanta north district of Ghana: Qualitative study of adolescents’ perception, community and health system support

“…However, 1 to 5 percent of the population in onchocerciasisendemic areas who are exposed to a high rate of infection transmission do not exhibit any clinical signs of the disease and are thus considered putatively immune individuals [6]. It is known that onchocerciasis is a chronic, slowly progressive, parasitic disease that has been regarded as the second-leading communicable cause of blindness globally with around 500,000 persons blind yearly [7]. A study by Crump, Morel, and Omura [8] revealed that, out of approximately 123 million persons who are at risk for infection in 38 endemic countries, 25.7 million are infected and 1 million are blinded or have a serious visual impairment.…”

“…Of those who are infected, 14.6 million suffer from skin disease and 1.15 million population has been estimated to experience loss of sight while 220,000 are confirmed to be completely blind which caused 1, 136,000 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in 2015 [14][15][16][17] and 1.23 million DALYs in [17]. The WHO's Onchocerciasis Control Program (OCP) has effectively reduced the prevalence of onchocerciasis by interrupting the transmission of the parasite and by mass population treatment in the regions at risk of the disease [7]. The widespread use of ivermectin therapy is essential for managing and eradicating onchocerciasis as a public health issue, which will help to stop the pandemic of neglected tropical diseases by 2030 [15].…”