ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2015
Financial and Economic Costs of the Elimination and Eradication of Onchocerciasis (River Blindness) in Africa.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Economic evaluations of onchocerciasis interventions: a systematic review and research needs.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2019Pooled it
- Economic Evaluations of Mass Drug Administration: The Importance of Economies of Scale and Scope.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2018Pooled it
- Comparison of Repeated Doses of Ivermectin Versus Ivermectin Plus Albendazole for the Treatment of Onchocerciasis: A Randomized, Open-label, Clinical Trial.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2020Trial
- Comparison of 6-Week Doxycycline vs 6-Week Rifampicin or 3 Weeks of Doxycycline Plus Rifampicin in the Treatment of Onchocerciasis: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind, Phase 2 Trial.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Integration of population-based surveys for neglected tropical diseases: A scoping review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Wonder drugs and where to use them: a forecast of ivermectin's impact on malaria in Africa.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2025Article
- Epidemiological assessment of onchocerciasis in previously unmapped villages for ivermectin distribution in Fer-Fer District, Somali Regional State, Eastern Ethiopia.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Economic evaluations of community health worker programs focussed on neglected tropical diseases in low- and middle-income countries (2015-2024): A scoping literature review.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Cost-effectiveness of mass drug administration for control of scabies in Ethiopia: a decision-analytic model.Frontiers in health services · 2024Article
- Navigating the way to onchocerciasis elimination: the feasibility and affordability of Onchocerciasis Elimination Mapping.International health · 2022Article
- Computational Design and Preliminary Serological Analysis of a Novel Multi-Epitope Vaccine Candidate against Onchocerciasis and Related Filarial Diseases.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Financial Costs of the Zanzibar Elimination of Schistosomiasis Transmission Project.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2020Article
- Article
- Economic performance and cost-effectiveness of using a DEC-salt social enterprise for eliminating the major neglected tropical disease, lymphatic filariasis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2019Article
- Valuing the Unpaid Contribution of Community Health Volunteers to Mass Drug Administration Programs.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2019Article
- Is the elimination of 'sleeping sickness' affordable? Who will pay the price? Assessing the financial burden for the elimination of human African trypanosomiasisBMJ global health · 2019Article
- From river blindness control to elimination: bridge over troubled water.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2018Article
- A stochastic model for the probability of malaria extinction by mass drug administration.Malaria journal · 2017Article
- Modelling the health and economic impacts of the elimination of river blindness (onchocerciasis) in Africa.BMJ global health · 2017Article
- Benchmarking the Cost per Person of Mass Treatment for Selected Neglected Tropical Diseases: An Approach Based on Literature Review and Meta-regression with Web-Based Software Application.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOnchocerciasis (river blindness) is a parasitic disease transmitted by blackflies. Symptoms include severe itching, skin lesions, and vision impairment including blindness. More than 99% of all cases are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. Fortunately, vector control and community-directed treatment with ivermectin have significantly decreased morbidity, and the treatment goal is shifting from control to elimination in Africa.
methodsWe estimated financial resources and societal opportunity costs associated with scaling up community-directed treatment with ivermectin and implementing surveillance and response systems in endemic African regions for alternative treatment goals--control, elimination, and eradication. We used a micro-costing approach that allows adjustment for time-variant resource utilization and for the heterogeneity in the demographic, epidemiological, and political situation.
resultsThe elimination and eradication scenarios, which include scaling up treatments to hypo-endemic and operationally challenging areas at the latest by 2021 and implementing intensive surveillance, would allow savings of $1.5 billion and $1.6 billion over 2013-2045 as compared to the control scenario. Although the elimination and eradication scenarios would require higher surveillance costs ($215 million and $242 million) than the control scenario ($47 million), intensive surveillance would enable treatments to be safely stopped earlier, thereby saving unnecessary costs for prolonged treatments as in the control scenario lacking such surveillance and response systems.
conclusionsThe elimination and eradication of onchocerciasis are predicted to allow substantial cost-savings in the long run. To realize cost-savings, policymakers should keep empowering community volunteers, and pharmaceutical companies would need to continue drug donation. To sustain high surveillance costs required for elimination and eradication, endemic countries would need to enhance their domestic funding capacity. Societal and political will would be critical to sustaining all of these efforts in the long term.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.