Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A disease caused by infestation with filarial worms of the genus Onchocerca, especially a disease of humans caused by O. volvulus and characterized by nodular swellings on the skin and lesions of the eyes. Transmitted by black flies, the disease occurs in tropical regions of Africa and Central America.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Med.) An infection with nematodes of the genus Onchocerca, especially
Onchocerca volvulus . Untreated, such infections can cause serious dermatological problems, and in advanced cases may lead to blindness. In certain areas of tropical Africa the blindness caused by onchocerciasis is calledriver blindness .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun medicine A disease caused by a
worm of the genus Onchocerca, especially as transmitted to humans by flies and often causingblindness ; common in tropical Africa.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun infestation with slender threadlike roundworms (filaria) deposited under the skin by the bite of black fleas; when the eyes are involved it can result in blindness; common in Africa and tropical America
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Hence the popular name for the disease that is more correctly called onchocerciasis, which can also produce a disfiguring skin inflammation and intense itching.
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The disease, also called onchocerciasis, is caused by a parasitic worm, Onchocerca volvulus, whose larvae are transmitted in the bite of the black fly, which breeds by fast-flowing streams.
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Also known as onchocerciasis, river blindness affects more than 17 million people worldwide, particularly in rural Africa.
PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009
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The Director of Eye Health at South Sudan's health ministry, Ali Yousif Ngor, oversees the South Sudan part of an Africa-wide attempt to combat river blindness, also known as onchocerciasis (O. V).
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The Director of Eye Health at South Sudan's health ministry, Ali Yousif Ngor, oversees the South Sudan part of an Africa-wide attempt to combat river blindness, also known as onchocerciasis (O. V).
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Also known as onchocerciasis, river blindness affects more than 17 million people worldwide, particularly in rural Africa.
GEN News Highlights 2009
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Also called onchocerciasis, river blindness is caused by a parasitic worm whose larvae are transmitted by the bite of the black fly, which breeds by fast-flowing streams.
News24 Top Stories 2009
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Two of the diseases, onchocerciasis, known as river blindness, and trachoma, a bacterial eye infection, cause blindness.
1 Billion Suffer From Hidden Tropical Diseases, Says WHO AP 2010
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River blindness, or onchocerciasis, is spread by the bites of black flies, which carry the parasite from person to person.
Rene Le Berre, who led successful fight against river blindness, dies Emma Brown 2010
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"The onchocerciasis situation is more and more worrying in the zones extending south of the forest where 15 percent (of the population) has been affected," said Souleymane Yeo, who heads up the PLNCE programme.
sionnach commented on the word onchocerciasis
River blindness; treatable with Ivermectin, a broad-spectrum antiparasitic agent discovered and developed (primarily for veterinary applications) by Merck and Co. in the early 1980's.
Merck has been good about making the drug available, at little or no cost, to populations affected by river blindness, ever since it was proven effective. (Not as altruistic as it might sound - they were cleaning up in agricultural markets throughout the developed world.) They are currently working with the Carter Center, from whose website the following text is taken:
"Studies in the 1980s showed that the drug Mectizan®, made by Merck & Co. Inc., could effectively and safely treat and prevent river blindness by killing the microfilariae in the human body. Merck decided in the late 1980s to donate the drug to all who needed it for as long as needed. This donation was an important stimulus for the current initiative to globally control onchocerciasis using a strategy of community-based treatment.
With the use of Mectizan and health education, experts have concluded that it is possible to completely eliminate river blindness from the Western Hemisphere where it occurs. The Carter Center is the leading organization in a coalition of partners dedicated to this cause, called the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas (OEPA). In Africa, the strategy is to control river blindness with one treatment per year. However, in 2006, areas in Sudan and Uganda began a twice-per-year treatment elimination strategy modeled after the successful Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas approach. "
(After treatment, the dead parasites fall out of the affected subjects' eyes)
I used to work (back in the 1980s) with entomologists on greenhouse studies of avermectin, first cousin to Ivermectin, against a variety of pests (spider mites, tobacco budworm, cockroaches - you name it). With the monster cockroaches, one drop would be applied topically and mortality gauged at 24 and 48 hours. To determine whether an insect was alive or dead, the research assistant would poke them with a little stick - if they didn't wriggle at least two of their little legs, they were considered dead.
January 17, 2009