Onchocerca volvulus

Onchocerca volvulus
Onchocerca volvulus, the causative agent of river blindness
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Nematoda
Class: Chromadorea
Order: Rhabditida
Family: Onchocercidae
Genus: Onchocerca
Species:
O. volvulus
Binomial name
Onchocerca volvulus

Onchocerca volvulus is a filarial (arthropod-borne) nematode (roundworm) that causes onchocerciasis (river blindness), and is the second-leading cause of blindness due to infection worldwide after trachoma. It is one of the 20 neglected tropical diseases listed by the World Health Organization, with elimination from certain countries expected by 2025.[2]

John O'Neill, an Irish surgeon, first described Onchocerca volvulus in 1874, when he found it to be the causative agent of 'craw-craw', a skin disease found in West Africa.[3] A Guatemalan doctor, Rodolfo Robles, first linked it to visual impairment in 1917.[4]

O. volvulus is primarily found in sub-Saharan Africa, and there is also disease transmission in some South American nations, as well as Yemen (see global map bottom right). It is spread from person to person via female biting blackflies of the genus Simulium, and humans are the only known definitive host.[5]

  1. ^ "Onchocerca volvulus Leuckart, 1893". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  2. ^ "Neglected tropical diseases". World Health Organization. March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  3. ^ O’Neill, J. (1875). "On the presence of a filaria in "craw-craw."" (PDF). The Lancet. 105 (2686): 265–266. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(02)30941-3.
  4. ^ Robles, R. (1917). "Enfermedad nueva en Guatemala". La Juventud Médica.
  5. ^ Duke, B.O. (1993). "The population dynamics of Onchocerca volvulus in the human host". Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. 44 (2): 61–68. ISSN 0177-2392. PMID 8367667.

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