More than 10 million Sudanese in 15 states of the country are at risk of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, amid intense efforts by health authorities to eradicate tropical diseases.
Sarah Lavinia, the center’s resident representative in Sudan, told Sky News Arabia that the center is working to provide technical and financial support and coordinate local efforts to eradicate the two diseases in the coming years.
She explained that the center trains health personnel on how to deal with the two diseases, in addition to distributing medicines.
According to Issam Mohamed Zarrouk, advisor to the Carter Center for the Elimination of River Blindness and Elephantomycosis Program, Sudan has already managed to eliminate two of the four foci in which river blindness is prevalent, and has saved, through curative and preventive interventions, more than 600,000 people who were at risk of contracting the disease, which is concentrated in 4 countries. regions in the north, east and west of the country.
As for elephantiasis, an estimated 10 million people are at risk of contracting it, distributed over 65 districts in 14 states of the country.
Zarrouk confirmed to “Sky News Arabia” that the competent authorities are making intensive efforts to eliminate the two diseases, adding: “With regard to river blindness, efforts have been crowned with success in the areas of Abu Hamad in the Nile River state in northern Sudan and Qalabat in the east of the country, while work is still underway to eliminate The disease is completely in the Radom areas in the western Darfur region and Khor near the Sudanese-Ethiopian border in the Blue Nile.”
Zarrouk pointed to the urgent need for coordination with other countries, such as Ethiopia, given the border overlap in some foci.
River blindness
River blindness is an infectious eye disease that causes visual impairment or complete loss, as well as the skin.
The disease is transmitted from one person to another through a type of black fly that lives in areas near rivers and strong watercourses.
The infection is transmitted when flies bite a person carrying a worm called Onchocerca volvulus in their blood.
More than 99 percent of those exposed to the disease live in 31 African countries, and the disease is also spreading in some foci in two countries in Latin America and Yemen.
Important facts
- 99 Percent of people with river blindness live in 31 countries in Africa.
- 300 million people in African countries need treatment or preventive intervention to prevent river blindness.
- 80% is the level of coverage required for treatment with Ivermectin for at least 12-15 years in areas where river blindness is endemic to eliminate transmission.
- 15 million of those who received the infection actually developed skin diseases and more than a million people lost their sight.
