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Moses Katabarwa | The Roles of Technology and Innovation in Ending River Blindness Disease

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Moses Katabarwa, a Uganda native and Senior Epidemiologist for The Carter Center, has spent the past twenty years chasing a tiny black fly that breeds in fast-flowing waters and carries theparasite for the horrific age-old disease, river blindness. But these days, technology, like Google Earth to map the endemic areas, or a special lab machine for OV-16 testing and DNA analysis that creates a polymerase chain reaction, are contributing to the positive progress to eliminate the disease.

River blindness (Onchoceriasis) is a parasitic disease transmitted through the bites of tiny black flies (Simulium species) that live in lush regions with swift-moving waters and carry the nematode (filarial) worm. Inside the human body, the female worm produces thousands of larval worms (microfilaria) which migrate to the skin and eyes, leading to skin discoloration, intense, horrific itching ("leopard skin") and eventual permanent loss of sight, hence its name "river blindness." The disease has tormented millions of people for thousands of years in 30 countries in Africa, six countries in the Americas and Yemen -- usually in poor, remote communities.

Nearly 25 years ago researchers discovered a drug, ivermectin, that kills the worms, relieving the itching and preventing blindness; donations of the drug by the manufacturer, Merck and Company, have made it possible to control river blindness but only eliminate it in large areas of Latin America. Recently, Uganda, armed with the successful strategy in the Americas, modern technologies, and a bold determination, challenged global health experts' belief, proving that it was possible to eliminate in Africa where 99% of river blindness is found. In July 2013, The Carter Center and Uganda launched a new strategy to halt transmission altogether by 2020. For Moses Katabarwa, senior epidemiologist with The Carter Center, eliminating river blindness is his life work -- and he is hopeful that other African countries will follow Uganda's example.
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