The Carter Center River Blindness (Onchocerciasis) Program

River Blindness Program

Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas
The Carter Center is the sponsoring agency for the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas (OEPA), which works to end illness and transmission of onchocerciasis in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela. Headquartered in Guatemala, OEPA partners with the ministries of health of the six affected countries in Latin America, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, academic institutions, and independent organizations.

At-Risk Populations
In the Americas, 500,000 people are at risk for onchocerciasis, or river blindness, and 180,000 are infected in endemic nations. Diverse populations and ecosystems are affected by river blindness.
In Guatemala and Mexico, the mestizo and indigenous populations who live on coffee plantations are the most at risk. In Brazil and Venezuela, the nomadic Yanomami population is one of the most severely affected groups because their travel throughout the Amazon rainforest places them at continuous risk for exposure.

Local volunteers who work to eradicate onchocerciasis.

Carter Center Photos

Local volunteers, including these men, have dedicated countless hours to eradicating onchocerciasis in their communities.

Semiannual Doses of Mectizan®
Since the disease is less widespread in the Americas than Africa, semiannual treatments with Mectizan® (ivermectin), donated by Merck, over many years can halt transmission of river blindness and improve health by reducing the presence of river blindness larvae in the human body.

Before OEPA started operations in 1993, only 41,911 treatments of Mectizan were administered throughout Latin America, vastly underserving the populations at risk. However, program efforts have increased distribution considerably.

After several years of monitoring and evaluation of the program, in 2001, the Carter Center's International Task Force for Disease Eradication confirmed that river blindness could be eliminated from the Americas by treating 85 percent or more of infected people with semiannual doses of Mectizan.

(Read the Final Report of the Conference on the Eradicability of Onchocerciasis.)

A woman in an onchocerciasis-endemic area takes a dose of Mectizan®. Like the rest of her community, she will be spared a future of blindness from this debilitating disease.

No New Blindness
Since 2003, the six endemic countries have maintained at least 85 percent treatment coverage, which must be sustained to halt transmission.

In 2008, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an urgent call to interrupt the disease's transmission by 2012. (Read the resolution, "Toward the Elimination of Onchocerciasis in the Americas (PDF).")

As of 2012, a total of eight foci of the 13 endemic areas have interrupted transmission as a result of health education and Mectizan® distribution. There has been no new blindness from river blindness, and Colombia (2007) and Ecuador (2010) have become the first countries in the world to halt river blindness transmission. Mexico and Guatemala are close to making similar announcements. The program is focusing now on the remaining endemic areas of Brazil and Venezuela.

Thanks to these achievements, the Americas will soon free itself from the threat of this debilitating disease.