Onchocerciasis (River Blindness)in Africa

• Disease Fact Sheet: Onchocerciasis (River Blindness)
  The United Nations World Water Day Program offers information regarding the river blindness, its cause, its effect on people, the scope of the problem and different programs that aim to control the disease.
• MECTIZAN Home Page
  Merck's website on Mectizan, the Merck drug used to treat river blindness has an 18 page article on the development of the drug, the program used to distribute it freely to those who need it and also information about the disease and how it is contracted.
• Onchocerciasis, The UNICEF-UNDP-World Bank-WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases
  The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) is an independent global programme of scientific collaboration and has an informational website on onchocerciasis, its life cycle, reserach and treatment.
• Mectizan Donation Program- Onchocerciasis information
• This website of the Mectizan Donation Program provides information about onchocerciasis, the lifecycle of the black fly, geographical distribution of the disease, and available treatment.
• Global Partnership to Eliminate River Blindness- World Bank
  The Global Partnership to Eliminate River Blindness has defeated the disease in large parts of West Africa and is making rapid progress in the remaining endemic countries in West, Central, and Eastern Africa
• River Blindness Program- Carter Center
  The Carter Center is one of the only nongovernmental organizations combating river blindness in both Africa and the Americas. The Center is active in the struggle to control onchocerciasis in five out of 30 African countries. In each country, The Carter Center works directly with the ministries of health, establishing accountability and building sustainability.
• WHO: Onchocerciasis (river blindness)
  The website lists the three major WHO programmes summarize the international community's response towards onchocerciasis.
• Helen Keller International's Onchocerciasis Department
  Helen Keller International (HKI) has been supporting the Governments of five OCP countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali and Niger, to design and implement appropriate Information-Education-Communication (IEC) strategies to support onchocerciasis control.
• Onchocerca volvulus (River Blindness)
  The Ohio State College of Biological Sciences offers background information about River Blindness and how it is caused by the Onchocerca volvulus worm. This site also has a microscopic image of O. volvulus and also a link to the life cycle of the worm.
• Open Directory-Health Conditions:Onchocerciasis
  This site offers links to several river blindness eradication programs, some articles about the disease as well as the WHO and CDC sites.
• TIGR O. volvulus Gene Index
  The Institute for Genomic Research provides an analysis of the DNA of the Onchocerca volvulus, which causes river blindness.
• Comparison between the Skin Snip Test and Simple Dot Blot Assay as Potential Rapid Assessment Tools for Onchocerciasis in the Postcontrol Era in Ghana (article)
  A 2002 article by G. E. Guzmán, et.al. Document accessed only for Journal subscribers.
• Training of Trainers: Onchocerciasis Guide for Training Doctors and other Health Personnel
  Training modules that address prevalence, transmission, symptoms, and treatment of Onchocerciasis.
• Onchocerciasis
  A 2002 article written by Deborah Eezzudeuemhoi, MD, et.al. on Onchocerciasis.
• Can Ivermectin Mass Treatments Eliminate Onchocerciasis in Africa? (article)
  A 2002 article by M. Winnen, et.al. to elucidate the conditions in which mass treatment with ivermectin reduces the transmission of Onchocerciasis volvulus sufficiently to eliminate infection from an African community.
• Final Report of the Conference on the Eradicability of Onchocerciasis (report)
  This is an Open Access article only for subscriblers. Published by Yankum Dadzie, et.al in 2003.
• Onchocerciasis
  An article by Michael A Forgione, Jr, MD, Chief of Infectious Diseases, Instructor, Department of Medicine, Keesler Medical Center.
• Final Report of the Conference on the Eradicability of Onchocerciasis, 2002
  The Conference, which was organized by The Carter Center and the World Health Organization with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, addressed the question: "Is onchocerciasis (River Blindness) Eradicable with Current Knowledge and Tools?"