Onchocerciasis Ashley Haynes Savannah Patton Chloe Brownlee Department

Onchocerciasis Ashley Haynes, Savannah Patton, Chloe Brownlee Department of Health and Human Performance Definition of Disease and Background Information Risk Factors Treatment • Traveling to or living in rural agricultural areas in sub-Saharan Africa: • Long-term missionaries • Peace Corps/long-term volunteers • Field researchers • “Vector control and communitydirected treatment with Ivermectin have significantly reduced morbidity” (Kim, 2015, p. 1) • Ivermectin • Kills the larvae, preventing damage (Abegunde, 2016). • Continued use if evidence of skin or eye infection • New treatment using Doxycycline • Kills the Wolbachia bacteria Transmission Symptoms Prevention • Caused by bite of a blackfly • Female worm produces larvae that migrate to the skin and eye • Dead larvae are toxic to skin/eye • Create itchiness and lesions • Lesions of the eye can lead to blindness • The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that at least 25 million people are infected worldwide; of these people 300, 000 are blind and 800, 000 have some sort of visual impairment. • May take months/years to show • Skin changes, lesions, itching, nodules, and alterations in vision • Skin wastes away and loses elasticity, causing hanging groin • Sometimes skin pigmentation is affected • Mainly in lower legs • Known as “leopard skin” • Diagnosed by: • Finding parasites in skin nodules • Skin biopsies – Gold Standard • Skin scrapings (CDC, 2015). • Onchocerciasis stands for River Blindness • “Second leading infectious cause of blindness in the world, after trachoma” (Winthrop, 2001, p. 151) • 90% of the disease occurs in Africa • Also found in: • 6 Latin American countries • Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula • Disease is believed to be exported by the slave trade (WHO, 2018). • 123 Million people at risk • Living near streams/rivers where Simulium blackflies live https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Simulium • No vaccine currently • Travel precautions • Personal protection from insect bites: • Insect repellant • Long sleeves and long pants (CDC, 2015). http: //www. who. int/blindness/partnerships/onchocerciasis_disease_information/en/