Resource information
The Onchocerciasis Control Program (OCP)
was created in 1974 with two primary objectives. The first
is the elimination of onchocerciasis as a public health
problem and as an obstacle to socioeconomic development
throughout an eleven-country area. The second is to leave
participating countries in a position to maintain this
achievements by enhancing national capacity to maintain
control of the disease. The principal tool has been vector
control. By eliminating the intermediate host by killing the
fly larvae, vector control effectively interrupts
transmissions of the disease. In the late eighties, the
program initiated the distribution of Mectizan as a
complementary method of control. The OCP program has been
hailed as one of the most successful partnerships in the
history of development assistance. The results of the
program include: 1) virtually halting transmission of
onchocerciasis throughout the eleven-country program area;
2) preventing 600,000 cases of blindness by the conclusion
of the program in 2002; 3) sparing 16 million children born
since the program's inception from any risk of
contracting onchocerciasis; and 4) freeing up estimated 25
million hectares of arable land for resettlement and cultivation.
