A seminar to discuss the role of the partners in the control of Onchocerciasis has opened at the Noguchi Memorial Institute of medical research in Ghana.
The outcome of the two-day seminar will be used to plan for subsequent control activities. The seminar has become necessary because of the need to co-ordinate the activities of the agencies connected to the programme and discuss the future direction of the control efforts.
The Onchocerciasis Control Programme, established in 1974 has successfully brought the disease under control in the Savanna region of the country and is no more a major public health problem. Over 500 million dollars have been spent on the programme, which will end in December next year.
The programme officials however say, there is the need to sustain the gains made, through surveillance activities, maintaining clean and healthy aquatic environment and socio-economic development of the Onchocerciasis -freed areas. Skin manifestations of Onchocerciasis have been discovered in the rural and forest areas of the country.