The WHO Onchocerciasis Control Programme: Retrospect and prospects

Berre, Rozenn Le; Walsh, John F.; Philippon, Bernard; Poudiougo, P.; Henderickx, J. E. E.; Guillet, Pierre; Sékétéli, A.; Quillévéré, Daniel; Grunewald, Jörg; Cheke, Robert

doi:10.1098/rstb.1990.0140

Cited by 29 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Raybould's research from the late 1950s onwards extended some of these investigative lines, combined with the aim of disease control. Subsequently, the small-scale basic biology work done in East Africa was applied on a much larger scale in the WHO funded transnational West African onchocerciasis control programme (Berre et al, 1990).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field station as stage: Re-enacting scientific work and life in Amani, Tanzania

Geissler

Kelly

2016

Soc Stud Sci

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Located high in Tanzania's Usambara Mountains, Amani Hill Station has been a site of progressive scientific endeavours for over a century, pushing the boundaries of botanical, zoological and medical knowledge, and providing expertise for imperial expansion, colonial welfare, national progress and international development efforts. The station's heyday was from the 1950s to the 1970s, a period of global disease eradication campaigns and the 'Africanization' of science. Today, Amani lies in a state of suspended motion. Officially part of a national network of medical research stations, its buildings and vegetation are only minimally maintained, and although some staff report for duty, scientific work has ceased. Neither ruin nor time capsule, Amani has become a quiet site of remains and material traces. This article examines the methodological potentials of re-enactment - on-site performances of past research practices - to engage ethnographically with the distinct temporalities and affective registers of life at the station. The heuristic power of re-enactment resides in its anachronicity, the tensions it introduces between immediacy and theatricality, authenticity and artifice, fidelity and futility. We suggest that re-enacting early post-colonial science as events unfolding in the present disrupts straightforward narratives about the promises and shortfalls of scientific progress, raising provocative questions about the sentiments and stakes of research in 'the tropics'.

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Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field station as stage: Re-enacting scientific work and life in Amani, Tanzania

Geissler

Kelly

2016

Soc Stud Sci

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“…However, it must be noted that Simulidae are almost universally distributed, even in areas where onchocerciasis is not endemic, such as in Scotland 15. Measures have been taken to control the vectors, particularly in the OCP area of West Africa (1975–2002) 16. This was a multilateral undertaking involving funding from the World Bank, the WHO as the executing agency, and the Food and Agricultural Organization and United Nations Development Agency taking the lead in development planning.…”

Section: Vector Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocular onchocerciasis: current management and future prospects

Babalola¹

2011

OPTH

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This paper reviews the current management of onchocerciasis and its future prospects. Onchocerciasis is a disease affecting millions of people in Africa, South and Central America, and Yemen. It is spread by the blackfly as a vector and caused by the filarial nematode, Onchocerca volvulus. A serious attempt was made by the Onchocerciasis Control Program between 1975 and 2002 to eliminate the vector in eleven of the endemic countries in West Africa, and with remarkable success. Formerly, the treatment was with diethyl carbamazine for the microfilaria and suramin for the adult worm. These drugs are now known to be toxic and unsuitable for mass distribution. In particular, they precipitate optic nerve disease. With the discovery of ivermectin, a much safer microfilaricide, and the decision of Merck to distribute the drug free of charge for as long as needed, the strategy of control switched to mass drug administration through community-directed treatment with ivermectin. So far, millions have received this annual or biannual treatment through the African Program for Onchocerciasis Control and the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas. However, the problem with ivermectin is that it is a monotherapy microfilaricide which has limited effect on the adult worm, and thus will need to be continued for the life span of the adult worm, which may last up to 15 years. There are also early reports of resistance. Serious encephalopathy and death may occur when ivermectin is used in subjects heavily infested with loiasis. It seems unlikely that a break in transmission will occur with community-directed treatment with ivermectin in Africa because of population migrations and the highly efficient vector, but in the Americas some countries such as Columbia and the Oaxaca focus in Mexico have reported eradication. Vector control is only now applicable in selected situations, and particularly to control the nuisance value of the blackfly. Trials are ongoing for alternatives to ivermectin. Candidate drugs include moxidectin, a macrofilaricide, doxycycline which targets the Wolbachia endosymbiont, and flubendazole, which shows promise with the newer oral cyclodextrin formulation.

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