Talk:Onchocerciasis

It
It would be nice if pages like this had some non-technical description and information in them. It is wonderful that detailed technical information is included, but an introduction and explenation in lay terms would be good for those readers with no medical/biological background.

38.96.176.66 15:54, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Family
It appears that Filarioidea is the superfamily, not the family name. Can that be added to the infobox? WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:04, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

What's the first?
"the world's second leading infectious cause of blindness.". This is a teaser. It needs a footnote idetifying the world's number one infectious cause of blindness. Is it trachoma? Why are we guessing?--Wetman (talk) 22:10, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Classification of symptoms
I believe that it would be more appropriate to put all the stuff on the separate article pages that are linked to in the "Classification" section, in this article. I looked at those articles and they are barely one sentence each and not very informative. They are all manifestations of onchocerciasis so IMHO it would be best to put them all in here. 119.73.182.210 (talk) 05:59, 3 December 2009 (UTC) Xenobiologista

Citation Verification
Introduction Section

“The parasite is transmitted to humans through the bite of a blackfly of the genus Simulium. The worms spread throughout the body and, when they die, cause intense itching and a strong immune system response that can destroy nearby tissue, such as the eye.[2]“ Citation 2 in this instance is not a specific reference. A better citation would be: http://www.sightsavers.org/learn_more/causes_of_blindness/river_blindness/default.html

“Evidence suggests that it is not the nematode but its endosymbiont, Wolbachia pipientis, that causes the severe inflammatory response that leaves many blind.”[4] A more accessible source for citation 4 might be citation 5 (http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1109409-overview#section~treatment).  Signs and Symptoms Section

“Dying microfilariae have been recently discovered to release Wolbachia-derived antigens, triggering innate immune responses and producing the inflammation and its associated morbidity.” This information is currently not cited but a possible citation for it might be: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19335425. This might also be used for other uncited information in this section.Kcandando (talk) 11:27, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Prevention Section

The paragraph detailing the history of the WHO’s prevention program needs a citation. Suggested citation: http://www.who.int/blindness/partnerships/onchocerciasis_OCP/en/

The sentence about the Onchocerciasis elimination programme for the Americas is in need of a citation. Suggested citation: http://www.who.int/blindness/partnerships/onchocerciasis_oepa/en/index.html.

The sentence about the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control is in need of a citation. Suggested citation: http://www.who.int/blindness/partnerships/APOC/en/.

Treatment Section

“Since 1988, ivermectin has been provided free of charge by Merck through the Mectizan donation program (MDP). The MDP works together with ministries of health and non-governmental development organisations such as the World Health Organization to provide free ivermectin to those who need it in endemic areas.” Suggested citation for this sentence: http://www.mectizan.org/history. Kcandando (talk) 01:58, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Merged articles
Lizard skin, Elephant skin, and Leopard skin were all formerly one-sentence stub articles and are now redirects to this article. No information has been lost— Æµ§œš¹  [ãːɱ ˈfɹ̠ˤʷɪ̃ə̃nlɪ] 03:46, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Nodding syndrome
The CDC released reports today showing that there was a consistency observed with nodding syndrome victim also suffered from onchocerciasis. At present, the link, if any is unknown. I mention it here so that others may notice any upcoming reports regarding a potential link or non-link, should any further research be forthcoming. The CDC link for the release is: http://www.cdc.gov/media/eid/2013/9.html, not worthy of inclusion at present, but might become significant in the future (or more likely, not be noteworthy at all).Wzrd1 (talk) 20:47, 14 August 2013 (UTC)


 * More broadly, this earlier meta-analysis showed a very strong correlation to epilepsy prevalence, which nearly doubled in areas with widespread onchocerciasis:

LeadSongDog come howl!  16:28, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

Control and Elimination?
Wouldn't a section 'control and elimination' be better than 'prevention' since prevention is pretty much a single sentence: there is no vaccine and not much hope for one. ~ juanTamad (talk) 09:09, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
 * If one eliminates the disease or controls the disease it is prevented. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 09:46, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
 * ok ~ juanTamad (talk) 10:07, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Epidemiology ENPH 450
— Assignment last updated by Brownwahlee (talk) 08:04, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Epidemiology ENPH 450
— Assignment last updated by MadelineMartin7302 (talk) 19:58, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

New Additions
As a group, we edited much of this article to hopefully make it more cohesive and added and improved citations where we could. There are still citations needed in the "Epidemiology" portion of this wiki page, as well as information that we could not properly site in the "Diagnosis" section. Amrae43 (talk) 23:31, 11 December 2023 (UTC)