RIVER BLINDNESS TRANSMISSION IS GONE FROM 11 OF 13 AMERICAS FOCI.
A new WHO review says transmission now remains only in the remote cross-border Yanomami Focus Area shared by Brazil and Venezuela.
The World Health Organization reports that repeated mass ivermectin treatment has eliminated transmission of onchocerciasis, or river blindness, in 11 of the 13 historic endemic foci in the Americas.
WHAT HAPPENED
Regional elimination efforts used repeated treatment campaigns aiming for at least 85% coverage of eligible populations. By 2025, transmission remained only in the Yanomami Focus Area across Brazil and Venezuela, estimated to include 39,701 people in 715 remote communities.
WHY THIS IS HOPESLOP
This is what long public-health work looks like: not a single breakthrough, but coverage maintained year after year until a parasite loses nearly all of its map.
ORIGINAL SOURCEWorld Health OrganizationRead the original report
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