One Disease Down -- Eradication of River Blindness Offers Hope in Fight Against AIDS

"Just when you thought that good news no longer happens in Africa, along comes this bulletin: West Africa has now been declared officially free of 'river blindness,' according to the UN's World Health Organization.

"The disease, spread via fly-borne parasites, once ravaged the eyesight of more than 2 million people in West Africa. Because the flies breed in rivers, millions of acres of waterside agricultural land were abandoned, inhibiting food production and economic growth.

"It took about 10 years of pressure and planning, but in 1974 a concerted eradication effort got rolling, and now it has finally paid off. WHO reported last week that '18 million people have grown up free of the threat of river blindness.' Abandoned farmland is being reclaimed.

"Credit this success to the initiative of West African countries, the long-term financial commitment of donor nations, the toil of health workers and the free medicines contributed by Merck & Co.

"Remarkable as this health milestone is, however, it is overshadowed by the growing storm cloud of the AIDS virus, which now infects some 30 million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

"The region, beset by a culture of denial that allows AIDS to flourish, lacks the money and health care infrastructure to conquer this plague. What's needed are the kind of home-grown will power and worldwide commitment that combined so formidably against river blindness.

"Eradication of that disease seemed impossible just three decades ago. Yet human will made it achievable, after all. That's a lesson to remember in the long AIDS war ahead."

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