African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control: progress report, 2013–2014

Overview

 The African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) is one of the largest and oldest public-private partnerships for health, and recognised as being one of the most successful in Africa. APOC, formed initially to control onchocerciasis (river blindness), covers >190 000 communities, predominantly in remote, hard-to-reach rural areas where the affected populations are poorly served by health services that lack sufficient financial and human resources. WHO is the Programme’s executing agency, working together with Ministries of Health of 31 national governments and nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs); 20 donors provide financial support for the control activities. The World Bank acts as fiscal agent administering the APOC Trust Fund which supports the onchocerciasis control programmes of the affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, Merck & Co. Inc made the treatment of at-risk populations possible by donating the drug ivermectin (Mectizan®) “as much as is needed for as long as is needed”.

APOC was launched in 1995 as the second phase of the highly successful Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP), which controlled river blindness in 11 West African countries between 1974 and 2002. Like its predecessor, APOC has largely achieved elimination of the disease as a public health problem.

This report summarizes the major activities of the programme in 2013–2014 which will be presented to the 20th session of governing body of the programme, the Joint Action Forum (JAF-20) in December 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The report highlights key aspects of the Programme’s operations including progress made in disease mapping, community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI), implementation aiming to increase the number of treatments of lymphatic filariasis (LF) and onchocerciasis, and impact assessment of treatment of onchocerciasis. It covers the period from September 2013 to August 2014.