River blindness is a skin disease as well as a parasitic disease (any kind of illness which occurs due to a parasite is a parasitic disease).River blindness is caused by a species called adult worms, leading to severe itching, visual impairment, and even permanent blindness in many cases. The skin of the infected person can often be noticed for a skin rash (having a red appearance).This tends to happen due to severe itching sensations all over the body. Due to carelessness and lack of information, river blindness grew massively and happened to be one of the neglected tropical diseases, due to the fact that most poor people are infected by this horrible disease.River blindness is transmitted to the human host via the repeated bites of infected blackflies. The infected blackflies’ repeated bites lead to the parasitic worm migrating to internal tissues of primarily the eye, leading to eye lesions, visual impairment, and swelling. Let us look at some river blindness facts and try to figure out how to treat this disease and more importantly, how to prevent the disease. Thereafter also check why do blind people wear sunglasses and x-ray facts.Precautions For River BlindnessDisease control is obviously a top priority for governments around the world. River blindness is an eye and skin disease which is caused by adult worms; symptoms include severe itching and permanent blindness when not treated.Skin conditions, although, might not seem severe in the beginning, can evolve into life-threatening conditions. The blood meal of an infected person can happen to play a part in the entire lifecycle which is why we need to be careful.One of the major precautions that people tend to take is spraying the nearby regions around which people live with N, N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide, also known as DEET, a common chemical insect repellent; it is very effective against black flies.An interesting thing to note here is that blackflies only bite during the day, they are not active during the nighttime. The disease gets transmitted due to the fact that blackflies need to feed on human blood to survive!One of the most obvious protections that can be pursued is to let no skin be exposed. Exposed skins are an invitation for these adult worms. The solution is to wear long sleeves (shirts as well as pants) so that the bite doesn’t happen.Medicine For River BlindnessEndemic countries are actively searching for treatment strategies to prevent any severe adverse events due to river blindness. This makes us question, is there a treatment for this disease caused by adult worms and if this disease is actually permanent?In fact, the only ‘solution’ that doctors around the world have been able to come up with is to try and reduce the number of embryonic larvae in the blood in order to reduce visual impairment and prevent permanent blindness.One of the most commonly used techniques to reduce the effect of river blindness is to give ‘ivermectin’ to the infected person for a span of six months for a continuous period of 10-15 years (lifetime of adult worms)! This technique can kill all the baby larvae but it is not very effective against grown adult worms.If you want to give credit to someone for curing river blindness, it has to go to Dr.William Campbell of Merck Research Labs. He suggested that using the drug Mectizan (Ivermectin), which is produced by Merck, can treat this deadly disease.Another promising treatment that has been recently developed is Doxycycline which has the ability to kill the bacteria on which the adult worms survive. However, before the treatment can start, it must be ensured that the person is not infected by ‘Loa Loa’, which can have severe side effects on the infected person!Affected GeographyThe disease got its name due to the fact that the vectors, blackflies live near rivers. Subsequent bites are required in order to completely infect the person. Only after these bites are the worms transferred to the body.The worms travel to the subcutaneous tissue where they hatch larvae. The next time a blackfly bites the infected person it ingests microfilariae so that the disease gets transmitted to it. Let us look at the countries affected by the disease.The common way to diagnose this disease is through skin biopsies. A biopsy of the skin is put into normal saline after which the larvae can be seen.Most of the infected people are found in the sub-Saharan Africa region and in countries in Latin America.This disease primarily happens to be endemic to Africa. In the northern part of the African continent, Senegal and Ethiopia are the major countries that seem to be infected by river blindness. The southern countries of Angola and Malawi are also considered to be endemic countries.The major countries in sub-Saharan Africa consist of the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, and many more, totaling 31 countries.WHO/Government InvolvementHistory is proof of the fact that whenever humans have held hands to fight against a cause, they have won and been able to defeat any obstacle. River blindness has actually been defeated in several countries!We know that Africa happens to be the most affected continent in the world but, a major part of Africa is majorly free from the disease and that is - West Africa. In 1974, the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa (OCP) was launched in Africa which went all the way up to 2002. While this operation was actively being held, the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) was functional from 1995-2005.Due to the suggestions and methods used by these programs, in 2020, while the world was battling against a deadly pandemic, 110 million people in Africa were given treatment with the help of ivermectin.In 1992, the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas (OEPA) was launched in the South American region.The program was primarily done to ensure that river blindness was eliminated. This program was so effective that by 2016, four of the six countries (Columbia, Mexico, Ecuador, and Guatemala) were officially declared free from river blindness by the WHO. This was a massive win for people around the world.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for river blindness facts then why not take a look at facts about South Africa, or facts about Congo Africa.
River blindness is a skin disease as well as a parasitic disease (any kind of illness which occurs due to a parasite is a parasitic disease).
