Log in to email corresponding author
|
Cite this article:
Henri Lucien Fouamno Kamga, Dickson Shey Nsagha, Jules Clement Nguedia Assob, Anna Longdoh Njunda, Peter Nde Fon, Peter Kindong Njem. Prevalence of onchocerciasis in the Fundong Health District, Cameroon after 6 years of continuous community-directed treatment with ivermectin. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2011;10:34 Key words: Onchocerciasis, microfilaria, district, ivermectin, Cameroon Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/10/34/full Received: 27/02/2011 - Accepted: 21/10/2011 - Published: 10/11/2011 © Henri Lucien Fouamno Kamga et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Prevalence of onchocerciasis in the Fundong Health District, Cameroon after 6 years of continuous community-directed treatment with ivermectin
Henri Lucien Fouamno Kamga1,&, Dickson Shey Nsagha2, Jules Clement Nguedia Assob4, Anna Longdoh Njunda1, Peter Nde Fon2, Peter Kindong Njem1
1Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon, 2Department of Public Health and Hygiene, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon, 3Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon, 4Medicine programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon
&Corresponding author
Henri Lucien Kamga, Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon
Onchocerciasis is one of the leading infectious causes of blindness affecting over 37 million people of which 99% are in Africa. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of onchocerciasis in the Fundong Health District, a locality where community-directed treatment with ivermectin has been carried out for 6 consecutive years.
Questionnaires covering participants’ identity, Rapid Epidemiological Assessment (REA) for onchocerciasis and parasitological parameters were distributed to participants. Skin snip (SS) was collected for laboratory investigation.
A total of 404 participants belonging to 200 households were randomly selected from the Fundong Health District, of which 134 (33.2%) were males and 270(66.8%) were females, 14 (3.5%) had microfilaredermia and 15(3.7%) had nodules. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of microfilaredermia with respect to age of participants (X2=2.749, P=0.601). There was however a statistically significant difference in the prevalence of nodule and impaired vision/eye itching (IVIE) with respect to age (X2=24.67, P<0.001). The greatest rate of infection was found among farmers (2.5%) followed by students (0.7%) and businessmen (0.25%).
This study shows that the study area is now hypo-endemic for onchocerciasis, following 6 years of continuous treatment with ivermectin. Careful monitoring of onchocerciasis should however be continued to avoid that the area returns to its initial hyper endemicity.
