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Onchocerciasis
Medical Questions » Onchocerciasis
| Name: Onchocerciasis |
| Also known as: River Blindness |
| Infestation by the nematode worm Onchocerciasis volvulus. |
Causes of Onchocerciasis
The nematode is carried from one person to another by the bite of a small black fly that only lives along rivers. Larvae are deposited in the skin by the bite, mature after 6 to 36 months into adult worms which are up to 60cm. long and live tightly coiled under the skin. The adult worm releases tiny microfilariae into the blood and these spread throughout the body, particularly to the skin, eyes and lymph nodes. A biting fly can pick up the microfilariae when it sucks up blood, and there they develop into larvae. Adult worms can live up to 18 years. Only occurs in equatorial Africa, southern Arabia and central America. |
Symptoms of Onchocerciasis
Extremely itchy skin, generalized rash, lumps under the skin usually over the lower back and thighs, premature age and wrinkling of the skin, changes in skin pigmentation and grossly enlarged lymph nodes in the groin. |
Tests for Onchocerciasis
Surgical removal and examination of a skin lump reveals an adult worm. |
Treatment for Onchocerciasis
Individual skin lumps may be be surgically removed, and medication is given to kill the microfilariae.
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Complications of Onchocerciasis of its treatment
Blindness occurs in 5% of patients when the microfilariae spread to the eye and damage the cornea (clear surface layer of the eye). Rarely, muscles and the intestine may be affected to cause weakness and weight loss. |
Likely Outcome of Onchocerciasis
Medication often must be repeated every six months for some years to give a cure. Death rate in untreated patients about one in one hundred. |
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