river blindness a success story under threat河盲一个成功的故事受到威胁.pdfVIP

Neglected Diseases River Blindness: A Success Story under Threat? * María-Gloria Basáñez , Sébastien D. S. Pion, Thomas S. Churcher, Lutz P. Breitling, Mark P. Little, Michel Boussinesq he accomplishments of this Programme inspire epidemiological mapping of onchocerciasis). Villages are all of us in public health to dream big dreams. It selected in each river basin according to appropriate criteria, shows we can reach ‘impossible’ goals and lighten and levels of endemicity are assessed by onchocercal nodule “T the burden of millions of the world’s poorest people ... .” prevalence in adult host samples [8]. By 2005, more than These were the concluding words by former World Health 22,000 villages in Africa (outside the OCP area) had been Organization Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland surveyed, allowing the identifi cation of many new foci (Figure at the closure ceremony of the Onchocerciasis Control 2). The new infected populations thus found, together Programme in West Africa (OCP) in December 2002 [1]. with their demographic increase, certainly compensate for The success of the OCP is so undeniable and exemplary, the number of cases prevented by the OCP (where it was with 600,000 cases of blindness prevented, 18 million estimated that roughly 3 million people were infected [7]). children born in areas freed from the risk of blindness, and Presently, it is estimated that 37 million people carry 25 million hectares of land safe for resettlement, that river O. volvulus, with 90 million at risk in Africa [9]. blindness is currently considered a disease of the past