New drug raises hope of ending river blindness – WHO
Geneva, 01 July-(ANA)-A drug normally prescribed to pets has raised hopes that river blindness, an infectious disease that threatens 100 million people, can finally be wiped out, the World Health Organisation, WHO, has said.
Moxidectin, now used to treat parasites in dogs, cats, horses and cattle, shows potential to destroy the worms that cause river blindness, whose debilitating symptoms include loss of sight, severe rashes and lesions, according to the WHO.
"If moxidectin kills not only the larvae but also sterilises or kills the adult worms, it has the potential to interrupt the disease transmission cycle within around six annual rounds of treatment," it said in a statement.
The announcement of clinical trials for the drug aligns with a revival of hope that river blindness, whose formal name is onchocerciasis, can be eradicated instead of just controlled.
The WHO proclaimed the end of smallpox in 1980 after an eradication campaign that began in 1970, and has been working for more than 30 years to stop the transmission of polio, which remains endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria.
River blindness has special significance for the United Nations agency, which launched an eradication campaign in 1970 using insecticide to kill the blackflies that transmit the disease-causing worm larvae.(ANA)
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