Year: 2015
Type: editorial
Abstract: New supportive health intervention technologies, including a vaccine, may be required in order to achieve onchocerciasis (river blindness) elimination targets.A new transatlantic partnership has been established to develop and test an onchocerciasis vaccine for Africa.This year marks the 40 year anniversary of a partnership between the World Bank's Africa Region, the World Health Organization (WHO), Merck & Co., and several other key nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and agencies who have led global efforts to control onchocerciasis (river blindness) [1].By almost any measure, the partnership has achieved extraordinary public health successes.It began as the Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP) in West Africa, which from 1974 to 2002 initially employed vector control through aerial spraying of insecticides before initiating ivermectin distribution in 1989 [2].According to WHO, through OCP, tens of millions of onchocerciasis cases were prevented, including an estimated 600,000 cases of blindness [2].Moreover, OCP successes allowed 100,000 square miles (25 million hectares) of land to be reclaimed for agriculture use [2].As OCP wound down, a second major initiative, the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) began in 1995, focusing on community-directed mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin in 19 countries.According to a recent analysis in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, between 1995 and 2010, APOC averted more than 8.2 million disabilityadjusted life years (DALYs) and will more than double that number by 2015 [3].Moreover, the costs of these health benefits are below $500 million, or approximately $27 per DALY averted [3], such that APOC has emerged as one of the world's most cost-effective global public health programs.These analyses and evidence that the partnership's activities led to the elimination of onchocerciasis in endemic foci in two African countries-Mali and Senegal [4]-have fueled great interest and optimism in advancing beyond control and perhaps one day eliminating onchocerciasis from Africa [5].Indeed, APOC may transition to the Programme for the Elimination of Neglected Diseases in Africa (PENDA) in 2016 with the goal to eliminate onchocerciasis by 2025.This is an ambitious goal that will face a number of challenges.MDA using ivermectin alone may not be sufficient to achieve onchocerciasis elimination.There are several key barriers.First, a known deficiency of MDA programming is the fact that
Source: PLoS neglected tropical diseases
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,670
OpenAlex ID: W2131172687