The First Confirmed Elimination of an Onchocerciasis Focus in Africa: Abu Hamed, Sudan

Mass treatment with ivermectin for onchocerciasis was stopped in 2012 in Abu Hamed, an isolated focus on the River Nile in northern Sudan. A 3-year posttreatment surveillance (PTS) ensued, at the end of which an evaluation was conducted in 2015 following the current World Health Organization guideli...

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Published in:	The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene Vol. 95; no. 5; pp. 1037 - 1040
Main Authors:	Zarroug, Isam M A, Hashim, Kamal, ElMubark, Wigdan A, Shumo, Zainab A I, Salih, Kawthar A M, ElNojomi, Nuha A A, Awad, Huda A, Aziz, Nabil, Katabarwa, Moses, Hassan, Hassan K, Unnasch, Thomas R, Mackenzie, Charles D, Richards, Frank, Higazi, Tarig B
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 02-11-2016
Subjects:	Animals Carrier Proteins - blood Carrier Proteins - genetics Child Communicable Disease Control DNA, Helminth - isolation & purification Freshwater Helminth Proteins - blood Helminth Proteins - genetics Humans Immunoglobulin G - blood Insect Vectors - parasitology Ivermectin - therapeutic use Onchocerca volvulus Onchocerca volvulus - isolation & purification Onchocerciasis - drug therapy Onchocerciasis - epidemiology Onchocerciasis - prevention & control Polymerase Chain Reaction Simuliidae - parasitology Sudan - epidemiology Egypt, Arab Rep., Nile R Africa Sudan
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Summary:	Mass treatment with ivermectin for onchocerciasis was stopped in 2012 in Abu Hamed, an isolated focus on the River Nile in northern Sudan. A 3-year posttreatment surveillance (PTS) ensued, at the end of which an evaluation was conducted in 2015 following the current World Health Organization guidelines for verification of onchocerciasis elimination. Vector black flies were collected from sentinel breeding sites and finger-prick bloodspots were collected from children ≤ 10 years of age resident in 35 communities within the focus. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening of 19,191 flies from four sites for the O-150 parasite-specific marker found no flies carrying Onchocerca volvulus larvae (0%, 95% upper confidence limit [UCL] = 0.16), and serological testing of 5,266 children identified only one Ov16 seropositive child (0.019%, 95% UCL = 0.074); whose skin snips were negative when tested by O-150 PCR assay. These results indicate that for the first time in Africa, onchocerciasis elimination has been verified after a successful PTS in Abu Hamed.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0002-9637 1476-1645
DOI:	10.4269/ajtmh.16-0274