blindness

Accra, Feb. 20, GNA - Local and foreign medical experts on Friday met in Accra to brainstorm on ways to develop an alternative vaccine for the treatment of Onchocerciasis (river blindness), a branch of Filariasis, a disease caused by worm-like organism.

The one-day workshop became necessary because, Ivermectin and doxycycline, two main drugs identified as being effective dosages for the treatment of filariasis, have been found to have some level of resistance.

Briefing journalists, Professor Ohene Adjei, Deputy Director, Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) said the Ivermectin drug used for mass chemotherapy of onchoceriasis only kills the micro organisms leaving the adult (macro) one, hence the disease is not entirely eliminated.

He said later, doxycycline drug was discovered about three years ago that could deal with the adult organism (macrofilaria) but added that unfortunately its patronage in Ghana has been very minimal.

Studies conducted in Upper Denkyira District on onchocerciasis patients with the doxycycline drug in 2002, "proved very successful but we are not doing anything about it, not using it for the treatment, and other countries are using it," Prof. Adjei said.

He said the current effort being made by the KCCR to come out with an alternative vaccine was showing signs of success.

The European Union (EU) is funding the project.

Studies have shown that onchocerciasis is endemic in 37 countries and infects at least 17.7 million people in Africa, Latin America and Yemen.

As the second most common cause of preventable blindness in Sub-Saharan Africa, river blindness has an estimated prevalence of 500,000 with visual impairment and 270,000 with blindness. The infection is transmitted by black flies, which transfer infective larva during a meal of blood.