River Blindness News and Research

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River Blindness or onchocerciasis is caused by the prelarval (microfilaria) and adult stages of the filarial nematode Onchocerca volvulus. The disease is transmitted by the bite of certain species of female Simulium flies (black flies) that bite by day and are found near rapidly flowing rivers and streams. Onchocerciasis is endemic in more than 25 nations located in a broad band across the central part of Africa. Small endemic foci are also present in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen) and in the Americas (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, southern Mexico, and Venezuela)

PAHO and The Carter Center join hands on the elimination of onchocerciasis across the Americas

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and The Carter Center signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement today to strengthen collaboration on the elimination of onchocerciasis — also known as river blindness — and other communicable diseases in the Americas.

21 May 2026

Minimal exposure to modern medicine rapidly alters the human microbiome

Even minimal exposure to modern medicine can rapidly change the human microbiome. In a new study publishing May 20 in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports, researchers reveal that the gut microbes of remote Amazonian Indigenous communities began shifting toward patterns more commonly seen in urban, industrialized populations after only a few medical visits.

20 May 2026

Acoziborole receives positive opinion for single-dose sleeping sickness treatment

The European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has granted a positive opinion to Acoziborole Winthrop (acoziborole) as a single-dose oral treatment for both early- and advanced-stage gambiense sleeping sickness in adults as well as in adolescents 12 years and older weighing at least 40 kilograms.

27 Feb 2026

Ending human bait practices in river blindness monitoring

New research shows that it's possible to end the practice of using people as 'human bait' to catch and test the blackflies that spread river blindness (onchocerciasis).

13 Nov 2025

Clinical trial confirms ivermectin safety in very young children down to 5 kg

Millions of very young children currently excluded from treatment with the drug ivermectin could be safely included in ongoing campaigns against challenging and often neglected tropical diseases such as intestinal worms, scabies and river blindness, according to results from a clinical trial presented today at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

10 Nov 2025

Ivermectin mass treatment shows great promise in reducing malaria transmission

Ivermectin administered to the whole population significantly reduces malaria transmission, offering new hope in the fight against the disease.

24 Jul 2025

Anti-parasitic drug could accelerate the elimination of infection endemic to Africa

Tens of millions of people in Africa are infected by parasitic worms that cause lymphatic filariasis (also called elephantiasis), a disease that leads to severe swelling and deformities of the limbs and genitals.

7 May 2025

Niger becomes first African country to eliminate onchocerciasis

The World Health Organization (WHO) congratulates Niger for having met the criteria for onchocerciasis elimination, making it the fifth country globally and the first country in Africa to be acknowledged by WHO for interrupting transmission of the parasite Onchocerca volvulus.

31 Jan 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': New Year, new Congress, new health agenda

The new, GOP-led, 119th Congress and President-elect Donald Trump have big legislative plans for the year — which mostly don't include health policy. But health is likely to play an important supporting role in efforts to renew tax cuts, revise immigration policies, and alter trade — if only to help pay for some Republican initiatives.

9 Jan 2025

Doxycycline shows promise in reducing deaths and seizures from nodding syndrome

A new study suggests that a course of the drug doxycycline can decrease acute seizure-related hospitalization and deaths related to nodding syndrome.

8 Jun 2024

New collaboration to combat river blindness and lymphatic filariasis

Prof. Achim Hoerauf, Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), and his team have succeeded in collaborating with the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy at the University of Bonn and the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI), to enter into a partnership with the Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai for the further development of the antibiotic corallopyronin A (CorA) as a treatment for the neglected tropical diseases river blindness and lymphatic filariasis and to raise a large amount of funding.

10 May 2024

University Hospital Bonn coordinates eWHORM project to combat worm infections in sub-Saharan Africa

African and European partners join forces to enable the World Health Organisation's (WHO) "Road Map for Neglected Tropical Diseases" (NTDs) and reduce the burden of disease associated with worm infections.

11 Apr 2023

Affordable Advanced Rapid Diagnostics from Global Access Diagnostics (GADx)

Global Access Health (GAH), a social enterprise dedicated to providing affordable medical products for global health, today formally introduced its first portfolio company, Global Access Diagnostics (GADx).

From Global Access Diagnostics 15 Jun 2022

Lateral flow assays: The possibilities beyond COVID-19

In this interview, News-Medical talks to Andre Alfaro from nanoComposix (now a Fortis Life Sciences company) about the possibilities lateral flow assays offer in the post-covid healthscape.

From nanoComposix 17 Mar 2022

Researchers receive NIH grants to develop new treatments for neglected tropical diseases

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received two grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling more than $5.5 million to develop new treatments for two types of devastating parasitic infections common in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South America: river blindness and intestinal worm infections.

22 Dec 2021

River Blindness News and Research

PAHO and The Carter Center join hands on the elimination of onchocerciasis across the Americas

Minimal exposure to modern medicine rapidly alters the human microbiome

Acoziborole receives positive opinion for single-dose sleeping sickness treatment

Ending human bait practices in river blindness monitoring

Clinical trial confirms ivermectin safety in very young children down to 5 kg

Ivermectin mass treatment shows great promise in reducing malaria transmission

Anti-parasitic drug could accelerate the elimination of infection endemic to Africa

Niger becomes first African country to eliminate onchocerciasis

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': New Year, new Congress, new health agenda

Doxycycline shows promise in reducing deaths and seizures from nodding syndrome

New collaboration to combat river blindness and lymphatic filariasis

University Hospital Bonn coordinates eWHORM project to combat worm infections in sub-Saharan Africa

Affordable Advanced Rapid Diagnostics from Global Access Diagnostics (GADx)

Lateral flow assays: The possibilities beyond COVID-19

Researchers receive NIH grants to develop new treatments for neglected tropical diseases

As constituents clamor for ivermectin, Republican politicians embrace the cause

Researchers identify several novel SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors

Researchers receive $2.95 million grant to create improved diagnostics for worm infections

Researchers identify traditional Ghanaian medicines to eradicate neglected tropical diseases

Study reveals onchocerciasis can be eliminated by adapting new measures and tools

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

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