News

JAMA Ophthalmology. Published online August 30, 2018.

Zhao PY, Rahmathullah R, Stagg BC, et al. A Worldwide Price Comparison of Glaucoma Medications, Laser Trabeculoplasty, and Trabeculectomy Surgery.

Pioneering Community-Based Ivermectin Distribution in Cameroon

When Merck and Company made Mectizan® available for mass distribution, grants from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the River Blindness Foundation enabled IEF to pioneer the first “community-based” Mectizan® distribution programme in Africa. This was done in 1990 in collaboration with Africare in Adamawa Province, Nigeria.  At the same time, the first such community-based programme was established by IEF in Yepocapa, Guatemala which was rolled into the Onchocerciasis Elimination Programme for the Americas (OEPA).  We then followed with programmes in the Thyolo Highlands of Malawi in 1991; in Cameroon’s South Region in 1991 and Adamaoua Region in 1997. 

IEF hosts first Awareness for Onchocerciasis (River Blindness) 5K Run/Walk at Anacostia Park in Washington, D.C.

Onchocerciasis is an eye and skin disease caused by a parasitic worm transmitted through black fly bites, that live near rivers and streams. This is the second-most common cause of blindness from infection. IEF has been part of an initiative to control Onchocerciasis in Cameroon. Since 1992, Merck & Company, Inc. has donated Mectizan® to be distributed through Cameroon's Adamoua and South Provinces.

The Ophthalmic Assistant, 10th edition by Stein HA, Stein RM, Freeman MI, Elsevier, in preparation.

Sheffield V (contributor), Chapter 56, Evans, PY "Ophthalmic Assisting in the international community and in the prevention of blindness"