Onchocerciasis focus in Colombia: follow-up study after 12 years
Ewert, A.; Corredor, A.; Lightner, L.; D'Alessandro, A.
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 28(3): 486-490
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0002-9637 PMID: 453444 Document Number: 140865
A follow-up study was made in 1977 of the only known focus of Onchocerca volvulus infection in Colombia, at Lopez on the Rio Micay in the Departmento Cauca, which was discovered in 1965. Skin biopsies from 254 people were examined for microfilariae. Of the 19 who were infected, the youngest was a 16-year-old male. Among those people included in the 1965 study [see Hm/A 40, 1494], 22 were examined again. 2 were positive for microfilariae on both occasions, 4 were positive in 1965 but negative in 1977 and the remaining 16 were negative on both occasions. The prevalence of infection in 1977 (7.5%) was lower than in 1965 (15.1%). However, a 50% response to the Mazzotti test (oral administration of diethylcarbamazine) among 26 people upstream from the previously identified endemic area suggests that infection with O. volvulus may be quite widespread.