African bank approves $2.64-million grant to fight river blindness

Burundi, the Central African Republic and the two Congos are among 14 African countries that will share US $2.64-million grant from the African Development Fund for the second phase of the continent's programme to control river blindness. The grant, to be drawn from the Technical Assistance Fund, will support the effort to treat endemic areas with Ivermectin, a drug used to rid animals and humans of blood-sucking parasites. A parasitic worm transmitted to humans by various species of black fly causes river blindness, scientifically known as onchocerciasis. It results in skin inflammation and, in some cases, blindness. The disease is found in tropical America and Africa, where 70 million people risk infection, the ADF reported. If successful, the programme will help reduce poverty and improve the health of residents in usually agriculturally fertile areas. The presence of the disease in such places has been a major hindrance to socioeconomic development. The Technical Assistance Fund will be used to finance 4.27 percent of the foreign exchange component of the programme, which is to cost the equivalent of $112.42 million. The African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control was launched in 1995 with the aim of reducing prevalence of the disease to below 1 percent in the most-affected countries. [Details of the grant]