The Federal Ministry of Health has revealed that the transmission of onchocerciasis popularly referred to as ‘river blindness’ has been halted in three states.
Speaking during the 10th meeting of the onchocerciasis elimination committee in Abuja on Tuesday, the committee revealed that about 4.2 million persons will no longer be in need of mass administration of medicines for onchocerciasis in the endemic nine local government areas of Plateau, Nasarawa and Kaduna states.
According to the committee, nearly all the states have maintained a minimum of 65 per cent therapeutic coverage for the last seven years, while the overall treatment has risen from 200,000 persons in 1991 to about 70 million by 2018, including people living in conflicts areas.
‘’The results have also shown a reduction of transmission of the disease in other states. The local governments where transmission of the disease is ongoing are conducting a twice –a-year treatment to fasttrack the elimination of the disease.
‘’Sustaining the momentum of the elimination may become more challenging as clinical manifestation of the disease become increasingly rare.
‘’Innovation communication strategy is being employed to ensure that high coverage is maintained until the disease id eliminated in the country,’’ the committee said.
Meanwhile, celebrating the feat in Abuja on Tuesday, Chairman National Onchocerciasis Elimination Committee, Prof. Bertrand Ekejeba Bright Nwoke, said that with the achievement, Nigeria has joined other countries in the interruption of the disease.
He said that the milestone achievement was made possible through the collaborative efforts of the Federal Ministry of Health, the Carter Center, Sight Savers, the respective states governments and local government areas of the affected communities.
‘’Today, we are celebrating our success. For more than 20 years, we have been working on control and elimination of River blindness technically known as onchocerciasis. We have now recorded interruption of the disease in Plateau Nasarwa and Kaduna states.
‘’The results and signs we are getting from Kebbi, Zamfara and Bauchi states also indicate that we are at the verge of interruption. Nigeria is the first country to interrupt the disease in a population of about 6 million,’’ Nwoke added.
Director and National Coordinator, Neglected Tropical Disease in the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Chukwuma Anyaike, described the success recorded as a major achievement.
“Stopping the mass drug administration programme in Plateau, Nasarawa and Kaduna states is a major achievement. What we need to do is complement this good work with careful surveillance to be sure the infection does not reoccur. In that way, we can put river blindness into the dustbin of history,” Dr Anyaike added.
River blindness is a parasitic infection that can cause intense itching, skin discoloration, rashes and eye disease that often leads to permanent blindness.
The parasite is spread by the bites of infected black flies that breed in rapidly flowing rivers and streams.
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