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Stemming the tide of river blindness: the early years of ivermectin

Hugh R Taylor
Med J Aust 2003; 179 (11): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05720.x
Published online: 1 December 2003

In 1978, when I was a Fellow in Ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, I went to a seminar given by one of the senior faculty (Maurice Langham) about work he was doing on an unusual disease called onchocerciasis. Although I must have learnt about onchocerciasis at medical school and during my ophthalmology training, it was such an esoteric tropical disease in small print that it had made no perceptible impact on me.


  • Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, East Melbourne, VIC.


Correspondence: 

  • 1. Onchocerciasis and its control. Report of a WHO Expert Committee on Onchocerciasis Control. World Health Organ Tech Rep Ser 1995; 852: 1-104.
  • 2. Hewitt RI, White DE, Jushner S, et al. Piperazines in the treatment of filariasis. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1948; 50: 128-140.
  • 3. Mazzotti L. Possibility of using the allergic reactions due to the administration of Hetrazan as an auxiliary diagnostic test for onchocerciasis. Revista del Instituto del Salubridad y Enfermedades Tropicales 1948; 9: 235-237.
  • 4. Hawking F. Suramin: with special reference to onchocerciasis. Adv Pharm Chemother 1978; 15: 289-322.
  • 5. Campbell WC. Invermectin and abamectin. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1989.
  • 6. Aziz MA, Diallo S, Diop IM, et al. Efficacy and tolerance of ivermectin in human onchocerciasis. Lancet 1982; 2: 70-78.
  • 7. Greene BM, Taylor HR, Cupp EW, et al. Comparison of ivermectin and diethylcarbamazine in the treatment of onchocerciasis. N Engl J Med 1985; 313: 133-138.
  • 8. Lariviere M, Vingtain P, Aziz M, et al. Double-blind study of ivermectin and diethylcarbamazine in African onchocerciasis patients with ocular involvement. Lancet 1985; 2: 174-177.
  • 9. Awadzi K, Dadzie KY, Schulz-Key H, et al. The chemotherapy of onchocerciasis. XI: a double-blind comparative study of ivermectin, diethylcarbamazine and placebo in human onchocerciasis in northern Ghana. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 1986; 80: 433-442.
  • 10. White AT, Newland HS, Taylor HR, et al. Controlled trial and dose-finding study of ivermectin for treatment of onchocerciasis. J Infect Dis 1987; 156: 463-470.
  • 11. Newlands HS, White AT, Green BM, et al. Effect of single-dose ivermectin therapy on human Onchocerca volvulus infection with onchocercal ocular involvement. Br J Ophthalmol 1988; 72: 561-569.
  • 12. Lindley D. Merck’s new drug free to WHO for river blindness programme. Nature 1987; 329: 752.
  • 13. Pacque MC, Dukuly Z, Greene BM, et al. Community-based treatment of onchocerciasis with ivermectin: acceptability and early adverse reactions. Bull World Health Organ 1989; 67: 721-730.
  • 14. Pacque M, Munoz B, Poetschke G, et al. Pregnancy outcome after inadvertent ivermectin treatment during community-based distribution. Lancet 1990; 336: 1486-1489.
  • 15. Taylor HR, Pacque M, Munoz B, Greene BM. Impact of mass treatment of onchocerciasis with ivermectin on the transmission of infection. Science 1990; 250: 116-118.
  • 16. Taylor HR, Gonzalas C, Duke B. Simplified dose schedule of ivermectin. Lancet 1993; 341: 50-51.
  • 17. Dull HB, Meredith SEP. The Mectizan Donation Programme — a 10-year report. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 1998; 92 Suppl 1: S69-S71.
  • 18. Richards R. Programmatic goals and approaches to onchocerciasis. Lancet 2000; 355: 1663-1664.
  • 19. Dadzie KY, VanNewkirk MR, Taylor HR. Onchocerciasis. In: Denny M, Wallach RS, Dondrea CL, editors. International ophthalmology 2002-2003. San Francisco: American Academy of Ophthalmology, 2002: 231-246.

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