Onchocerciasis

Onchocerciasis is the name of a chronic human infection caused by a helminthic worm called Onchocerca volvulus. It is a clinical syndrome partly or entirely characterized by dermatologic, ophthalmologic, lymphatic, and rarely, systemic manifestations. Its clinical implications are so far-reaching that it has a mortality rate of 30%. That this disease still continues since its discovery in 1875 by John O'Neil, despite recent advances in science, is a bitter fact of our chronic therapeutic inadequacies and calls for an effective inexpensive therapy.