Brazzaville – Onchocerciasis – in total called river blindness – is a principal public smartly being arrangement back in Congo. Once confined to rural communities living discontinuance to rivers and farmlands, the disease is now most modern in city settings, namely in communities located discontinuance to watercourses.
Virtually 2 million individuals, or around 30% of the inhabitants, are in wretchedness of contracting onchocerciasis, which is transmitted thru the bites of infected sad flies. It causes intense itching, skin and examine lesions, and irreversible blindness in severe circumstances.
In response, the country’s National Onchocerciasis Preserve a watch on Programme has been implementing a vary of measures, including raising public consciousness to reinforce prevention in addition to carrying out mass drug administration in endemic districts to curb infection.
Over the final twenty years, 18 mass drug administration campaigns gain been organized in at-wretchedness districts, with encouraging outcomes. Community participation has improved over the years in addition to belief in disease sustain a watch on efforts and affect on smartly being.
With the reinforce of partners reminiscent of the World Health Group (WHO), Sightsavers and pharmaceutical companies, a drug administration marketing campaign applied between October and December 2024 reached near to 700 000 individuals and entailed intense group mobilization thanks to training of smartly being group and group mobilizers. In communities where lymphatic filariasis, additionally identified as elephantiasis, is additionally customary, mass preventive cure turned into once additionally applied.
“We are able to continue to work together to bring this disease below sustain a watch on. Collaboration between the local communities, smartly being group and our international partners is mandatory if we are to gain our goal of eliminating the disease,” says Dr Marlhand Hemilembolo, Director of the National Onchocerciasis Preserve a watch on Programme.
Prevention plays a central feature in onchocerciasis sustain a watch on, as it complements the therapies administered. “I took this medicine no longer easiest to defend myself, nonetheless additionally to stop my teenagers from contracting this disease in future. Prevention is the key,” says Youlou Annie, a mother of 5, who bought the cure.
Véronique, a fifty three-year-worn farmer who lives reach River Congo in the Congolese capital Brazzaville and who has been treated from a earlier onchocerciasis infection, says she continues to clutch medication to stop the disease from progressing to power complications, reminiscent of examine hurt or irreversible blindness.
To reach communities reminiscent of Véronique’s during the campaigns, better than 6000 trained group distributors launched into door-to-door visits and administration of the cure.
“The training we bought on consciousness-raising, management of medicine stocks and just appropriate-looking distribution practices, tremendously improved our preparation to fabricate our mission,” says Jean-Marie Saboutou, a group outreach team member in Brazzaville’s Mfilou smartly being district. “I gain been doing this work for twenty-four years, and above all, I’ve considered that thanks to consciousness-raising, individuals realize the importance of protecting themselves and derive the cure without hesitation. This turned into once no longer the case about a years in the past.”
Thanks to the concerted efforts and the commitment of local communities, Congo is making growth towards elimination of onchocerciasis. On the opposite hand, additional efforts are wanted to vastly minimize infection charges, including in city areas.
“Our goal goes previous simply reducing the threshold of infection transmission. This disease must no longer pose a risk to public smartly being,” says Dr Vincent Sodjinou, acting WHO Representative in Congo. “We desire to defend communities from this disease, contend with individuals who endure from it, and transform the lives of the most vulnerable individuals by improving their smartly being and livelihoods.”
