8144188949

37

Annex2.1 Page 1 of 5

Annual Bank Staff Report to the Executive DIrectors on the Riverblindness (Onchocerdasls) Control Program

1.    Each year Bank Staff report to the Board on the progress o\ i> West African

Riverblindness Control Program following the annual meeting of the Próg; Governing Council-Ae Joint Programme Committee (JPC). This report follows the 13th session of the JPC which convened in Geneva, December 8-11, 1992. The Riverblindness Program has been in operation 18 years and has about another decade to go to complete its mission. The Geneva JPC marked the beginning of the concluding phases of the Program. Hence, it provided an excellent perspective for assessing what has been achieved thus far and what is reąuired in the futurę to bring the Program to a successful completion and to capitalize on its accomplishments. The purpose of this report is to bring the Board up to datę on the progress in controlling riverblindness and to preview the futurę directions of the Program.

Progress in Controlling Rfoerblindness

2.    The Program*s objective is to eliminate riverblindness as a disease of public health

and socioeconomic importance in an 11 country area in West Affica and to ensure that the beneficiary countries are in a position to safeguard Ais achievement. The Bank was instrumental in creating the Program in 1974 and continues to play a major role in its operations as a leading sponsor and its second largest donor. The Bank co-sponsors the Program wiA UNDP, FAO, and WHO. WHO is Ae executing agency. The Bank has statutory responsibility for donor coordination, mobilizing all donor financing, and managing Ae Program's Trust Fund. The Bank regularly chairs Ae Donors' Conference and Ae Committee of Sponsoring Agencies, which coordinate broad Program policies, consider financmg reąuirements, review budgets, and oversee Program operations. In addition, Ae Bank plays a lead role in organizing support boA for socioeconomic development of riverblindnes$-controlled areas and for capacity buildmg in Ae beneficiary countries to prevent any long-term recurrence of Ae disease.

3.    Riverblindness is caused by a parasitic worm which Uves for up to 14 years in Ae

human body. This adult worm produces millions of microscopic infant worms which migrate throughout Ae body causing intense itching, debilitation, disfiguration, and eventually blindness. The vector for Ae disease is a savanna blackfly which transmits Ae infant worm from an infected person to oAers where it may develop into adulAood and reproduce. The Program's principal means of controlling riverblindness is to break Ae transmission cycle by killing Ae larvae of Ae blackfly. Blackfly larvae are destroyed through aerial spraying of breeding sites in fast-flowing rivers. This "vector control" meAod employs only environmentally safe insecticides which have been screened by an independent committee of intemationally recognized ecologists. Once Ae cycle of riverblindness transmission has been interrupted for at least 14 years, Ae reservoir of adult worms dies out in Ae human population, Aus eliminating Ae source of Ae disease.