The Faculty of Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), working in partnership with Bonn University, Germany, and selected international universities, have found a treatment for Onchocerciasis (river blindness) and Lymphoedema (Elephantiasis).

Professor William Otoo Ellis, Vice-Chancellor of the University, said the doxycycline therapy, a medical procedure, has proved efficacious in the cure of the two diseases.

He said the Faculty had as a result, received three (3) million Euros from the German Ministry of Education and Research, as well as the German Research Foundation for the establishment of Elephantiasis Clinics in some endemic areas in the country.

This is to help provide treatment for infected persons to bring the incidence of the diseases to the barest minimum.

Professor Ellis made this known at the 49th Congregation ceremony of the KNUST School of Graduate Studies, Faculty of Law and School of Business in Kumasi, on Friday.

A total of 8,179 students, from all the six Colleges of the University with 33 per cent of them being females, graduated in this this year’s ceremony.

Out of the figure, 7, 615 were undergraduates and 564 postgraduates.

For the first time in the KNUST’s history, the ceremony saw 41 graduates passing out with Doctorate Degrees, the highest in the academic life of Ghana’s premier Science and Technology University.

Professor Ellis noted that the University, with support from the government and other corporate institutions had invested heavily in state-of-the-art laboratories, studios and workshops in an attempt to enhance quality teaching and learning.

He disclosed that the KNUST Department of Crop and Soil Sciences had also received US$ 2.67 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the Alliance for Green Revolution (AGRA) programme to improve research activities in soil sciences.

The Vice-Chancellor tasked the graduating students to put into practice the knowledge acquired for sustainable socio-economic development.