BENIN: The end of river blindness

COTONOU, 8 May 2008 (IRIN) - Twenty years ago Benin was among the countries in West Africa most affected by endemic river blindness. Today the disease, which causes blindness and chronic skin irritation and is blamed for stunting economic growth of the populations it affects, has been almost completely eradicated. “We have massively decreased the incidence of the epidemic,” Laurent Assogba, a director at the Benin ministry of health said. Health workers are holding the country up as an example of what can be achieved with sustained funding and political will. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes Benin, and other West African countries where river blindness has been eradicated, as an “ongoing success story” and an example of the “value of synergy” that is necessary for good disease control programmes.