Control of River Blindness in West Africa: Case History of Biodiversity in a Disease Control Program

Abstract

The elimination of river blindness (onchocerciasis) in West Africa has been one of the most successful public health and economic development programs yet conducted. Control was based on aerial application of insecticides to control the aquatic, larval stages of black flies in the Simulium damnosum complex and distribution of ivermectin-based drugs to reduce incidence of the filarial worm, Onchocerca volvulus, that may ultimately result in blindness. Control efforts were long-term , extensive (with as many as 50,000 km of river miles being treated weekly for 12 years or longer), and far-reaching (distribution of drugs to almost 7 million people in 11 West African countries). The challenges and success of the program were strongly related to biodiversity: the vector S. damnosum is actually a complex of several species and subspecies, which vary in their competence in disease transmission; the filarial worm O. volvulus has different forms that vary in their virulence and incidence of producing blindness in humans; maintenance of the biodiversity of the nontarget riverine fauna was a prime concern of both the control program and the donor countries that supported it; the main insecticide used to control the black fly vector was derived from a bacterium Bacillus thuringensis israelensis; and the drug used in controlling the filarial worm was derived from a soil-dwelling Streptomyces fungus. Long-term biomonitoring studies indicate that environmental damage (e.g., loss of sensitive taxa) incurred was reversed when insecticide applications ceased.

Diversity assessment of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in Banco National Park (Banco Stream, Côte d'Ivoire)

“…In West Africa as a whole, little is known about the diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates (Yaméogo, Resh & Molyneux, ), although several studies have been conducted with benthic macroinvertebrate communities in Côte d'Ivoire. These studies mainly concerned the inventory of macroinvertebrates (Edia et al ., ; Diomandé et al ., ) and the relationships between benthic macroinvertebrate communities and the environmental variables (Bony et al ., ; N'Zi et al ., ).…”

Patterning and predicting aquatic insect richness in four West-African coastal rivers using artificial neural networks

“…Indeed, Resh and Jackson (1993) observed that species richness measures were sensitive to the impact of human activities on the stream ecosystems, particularly aquatic insects, which can be considered as good biological indicators of stream disturbances (Norris, 1995;Wright et al, 1995). Despite their importance in stream ecosystems, aquatic insects are little studied in West Africa (Yaméogo et al, 2004). In Ivory Coast, only a few studies have been devoted to macroinvertebrate fauna (Dejoux et al, 1981;Sankaré, 1991;Diomandé, 2001;Diétoa, 2002;Edia et al, 2007).…”

AYin‐Yangapproach to education policy regarding health and the environment: early‐careerists' image of the future and priority programmes

“…For Africa, Fjeldsa (2007) and current co-authors suggest biodiversity needs to be further considered at the local, livelihood and larger ecological scales. Water management is also considered to be critical for disease prevention (Colwell and Wilcox, 2010); for example, concerning river blindness (Yameogo et al, 2004); malaria and yellow fever (Junglen et al, 2009); and African swine fever (Jori and Bastos, 2009). Research has found indications that global climate change could lead to increased rates of cholera in Africa (Paz, 2009), and more generally is expected to be of great significance in lowering food security throughout SSA (Thompson et al, 2010).…”