How River Blindness is Treated

How is river blindness treated?

For many years, river blindness could be prevented by putting larvicides in streams to kill the fly larvae and control the black fly populations. The process is expensive, environmentally risky, and difficult to implement. The only medicines available had serious side effects and could only be administered intravenously, an unrealistic treatment option for the majority of people suffering from the disease in poor, rural areas.

In the 1980s, the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc., demonstrated that annual treatment with the orally administered microfilaricidal drug, Mectizan® (ivermectin), could effectively and safely treat and prevent river blindness by killing the microfilariae in the human body. In 1987, Merck announced that it would donate Mectizan to all who needed it for as long as needed. Mass distribution of the drug by the Mectizan® Donation Program began in 1988 and was the impetus for the current global initiative to control river blindness using a strategy of community-based treatment.

Health education and the distribution of Mectizan have not only prevented millions from contracting river blindness but also have saved multitudes of communities from near extinction. People who once abandoned fertile land near rivers to avoid being bitten have returned to their land and revived their local economy.

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Health Programs

River Blindness Program