2010/07/01 by Mario A. Rodríguez‐Pérez, Thomas R. Unnasch, Alfredo Domínguez-Vázquez +5 · 1 citation
Medicine · Immunology and Microbiology · Environmental Science · #Parasitic Diseases Research and Treatment #Parasites and Host Interactions #Parasite Biology and Host Interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2010.09-0626
openalex publication_date 2010/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The northern Chiapas onchocerciasis focus has undergone 11 years of ivermectin mass treatment. No evidence of microfilariae in the cornea and/or anterior chamber of the eye or in skin snips was seen in residents examined in 2006 in two sentinel communities (upper limit of the 95% confidence interval [UL 95% CI] = 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively). In children 10 and under, 0 of 305 were found to harbor antibodies to Ov16, a marker of parasite exposure; 0 of 4,400 Simulium ochraceum s.l. collected in 2005 contained parasite DNA, giving an UL 95% CI for the infective rate of 0.9/2,000, and an UL 95% CI of the seasonal transmission potential of 1.2 L3/person. These data, assumed to be representative of the focus as a whole, suggest that there is no ongoing transmission of Onchocerca volvulus in the northern Chiapas focus. Community-wide treatments with ivermectin were halted in 2008, and a post-treatment surveillance phase was initiated.