Onchocerciasis in Latin America
Eliminating River Blindness in Ecuador You notice a figure sitting on a porch in the North-Western region of Ecuador. As you approach it appears to be an elderly man but as you approach him you notice that he has features that you have never seen before. His skin looks as if it has been draped onto his skeletal frame causing him to lose all age indicators. Your eyes reach his and he does not make eye contact, a clear indication that he is blind. You approach the lizard man and ask his age, he replies “Cuarenta y tres.” You wonder to yourself how could a man who is 43 years old have lost his vision and aged so prematurely? The simple answer is Onchocerciasis or more commonly known as River Blindness. Desowitz (1981) discusses the history, causes, and possible treatments of River Blindness in his book “New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers. Tales of Parasites and People.” Desowitz mainly focuses on river blindness throughout Africa but discusses how this life-altering parasite was brought to Latin America and where it is prevalent. Desowitz (1981, p. 92) states that river blindness was first introduced to America in two waves. The first wave was in 1590 when slaves from West Africa were brought to Columbia and Venezuela for gold mining. The second occurred when Napoleon III sent Sudanese troops to Oaxaca (a state in Southern Mexico) in 1862 to help French forces fighting in the region. Over four centuries later, according to the Carter Center’s website for the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas (2008), “in the Americas, 500,000 people are at risk for river blindness, and 180,000 are infected in endemic nations.” River Blindness is prevalent in six Latin American countries: Venezuela, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico, and affects rural peasants who do not travel frequently. Foci, the center for main disease activity, exist in Mexico and Guatemalan highlands that are at an elevation between 1,600 and 5,000ft and areas