ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2016
Does Increasing Treatment Frequency Address Suboptimal Responses to Ivermectin for the Control and Elimination of River Blindness?
Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
41 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Economic evaluations of onchocerciasis interventions: a systematic review and research needs.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2019Pooled it
- Effect of a single dose of 8 mg moxidectin or 150 μg/kg ivermectin on O. volvulus skin microfilariae in a randomized trial: Differences between areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Ghana and impact of intensity of infection.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Trial
- Pharmacokinetics of oral moxidectin in individuals with Onchocerca volvulus infection.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Trial
- Single dose moxidectin versus ivermectin for Onchocerca volvulus infection in Ghana, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a randomised, controlled, double-blind phase 3 trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2018Trial
- Macrofilaricidal Efficacy of Repeated Doses of Ivermectin for the Treatment of River Blindness.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2017Trial
- Comparison of Doxycycline, Minocycline, Doxycycline plus Albendazole and Albendazole Alone in Their Efficacy against Onchocerciasis in a Randomized, Open-Label, Pilot Trial.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2017Trial
- Modelling the impact of mass drug administration with ivermectin or moxidectin on human onchocerciasis when there is sub-optimal response of parasites to treatment.Research square · 2026Article
- High-resolution mapping of onchocerciasis risk in Ghana using spatial machine learning models.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Evolution of Ivermectin Resistance in the Nematode ModelEvolutionary applications · 2026Article
- HISTONCHO: A dataset of intervention histories for onchocerciasis control & elimination in sub-Saharan Africa.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Frequency of Mutations Within P-Glycoprotein and Beta-Tubulin Associated With Ivermectin Treatment inJournal of parasitology research · 2026Article
- Genetic structuring and estimation of reproductive adults in Onchocerca volvulus: A genome-wide analysis across hosts and regions.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Neglected Tropical Diseases and Female Infertility: Possible Pathophysiological Mechanisms.Journal of tropical medicine · 2025Review
- Article
- Can mass drug administration of moxidectin accelerate onchocerciasis elimination in Africa?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Procedure for Handling and Storage ofTropical medicine and infectious disease · 2023Article
- Prevalence of epilepsy in the onchocerciasis endemic middle belt of Ghana after 27 years of mass drug administration with ivermectin.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2023Article
- AssessingPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Demographic patterns of human antibody levels to Simulium damnosum s.l. saliva in onchocerciasis-endemic areas: An indicator of exposure to vector bites.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Bacteriome Diversity of Blackflies' Gut and Association withPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSeveral African countries have adopted a biannual ivermectin distribution strategy in some foci to control and eliminate onchocerciasis. In 2010, the Ghana Health Service started biannual distribution to combat transmission hotspots and suboptimal responses to treatment. We assessed the epidemiological impact of the first 3 years of this strategy and quantified responses to ivermectin over 2 consecutive rounds of treatment in 10 sentinel communities.
methodsWe evaluated Onchocerca volvulus community microfilarial intensity and prevalence in persons aged ≥20 years before the first, second, and fifth (or sixth) biannual treatment rounds using skin snip data from 956 participants. We used longitudinal regression modeling to estimate rates of microfilarial repopulation of the skin in a cohort of 217 participants who were followed up over the first 2 rounds of biannual treatment.
resultsBiannual treatment has had a positive impact, with substantial reductions in infection intensity after 4 or 5 rounds in most communities. We identified 3 communities-all having been previously recognized as responding suboptimally to ivermectin-with statistically significantly high microfilarial repopulation rates. We did not find any clear association between microfilarial repopulation rate and the number of years of prior intervention, coverage, or the community level of infection.
conclusionsThe strategy of biannual ivermectin treatment in Ghana has reduced O. volvulus microfilarial intensity and prevalence, but suboptimal responses to treatment remain evident in a number of previously and consistently implicated communities. Whether increasing the frequency of treatment will be sufficient to meet the World Health Organization's 2020 elimination goals remains uncertain.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.