---

• n  infestation with slender threadlike roundworms (filaria) deposited under the skin by the bite of black fleas; when the eyes are involved it can result in blindness; common in Africa and tropical America

• With eyes full of parasitic worms and skin covered by itchy nodules, the adults suffer from onchocerciasis, a disease that afflicts 18 million people in the developing world and .
• When it bites, the fly injects a microorganism that causes onchocerciasis, a disease characterized by nodules under the skin and lesions of the eye that often cause blindness.
• THE GIFT OF SIGHT When it is wound up in 2002, the World Health Organization's control program in Africa for onchocerciasis, or river blindness, will have protected over 40 million .

• river blindness

News & Articles

---

• Merck Applauds Colombia for First PAHO/WHO Verification of Elimination of River Blindness
  Merck , known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, applauds the government of Colombia whose work with the MECTIZAN® Donation Program and The Carter Center-sponsored Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas led to today’s Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Americas , verification of Colombia as the first country in the ...
  July 29, 2013 - Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance