Description
Book SynopsisThe remarkable story of how a large public-private partnership worked to control and defeat riverblindnessa scourge which had devastated rural communities and impeded socioeconomic development throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa for generations. Riverblindness (onchocerciasis)a pervasive neglected disease, transmitted by the blackfly, that causes horrific itching, disfigurement, and loss of visionis also known as lion's stare in reference to the fixed, lifeless glare of the eyes blinded by the disease. The disease has destroyed countless lives for generations, particularly in Africa. Its effects are so devastating that the areas where it is most common (large expanses of land around rivers where the fly breeds) end up abandoned as villages move farther and farther away to more arid environments in order to escape the fly-biting, and hence the disease. The disease devastates communities from multiple angles: a large portion of each stricken community's population is disabled, often
Table of ContentsForeword, by James D. Wolfensohn
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. The Challenge
Chapter 2. Launching and Scaling Up the Onchocerciasis Control Program
Chapter 3. Expansion and Rescue
Chapter 4. The Game Changer—Ivermectin
Chapter 5. Getting Mectizan to Africa, Concluding the OCP
Chapter 6. A Closer Look at Socioeconomic Development
Chapter 7. Widening the Effort to All of Africa
Chapter 8. Deepening and Widening the Objective
Chapter 9. Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future
People Interviewed
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
