The prevalence of onchocerciasis in Africa and Yemen, 2000–2018: a geospatial analysis

Chris A. Schmidt; Elizabeth A. Cromwell; Elex Hill; Katie M. Donkers; Megan F. Schipp; Kimberly B. Johnson; David M. Pigott; Simon I. Hay; Jaffar Abbas; Victor Adekanmbi; Olatunji O. Adetokunboh; Muktar Beshir Ahmed; Fahad Mashhour Alanezi; Turki M. Alanzi; Vahid Alipour; Catalina Liliana Andrei; Tudorel Andrei; Davood Anvari; Seth Christopher Yaw Appiah; Muhammad Aqeel; Jalal Arabloo; Mohammad Asghari Jafarabadi; Marcel Ausloos; Atif Amin Baig; Maciej Banach; Till Winfried Bärnighausen; Krittika Bhattacharyya; Zulfiqar A. Bhutta; Ali Bijani; Oliver J. Brady; Nicola Luigi Bragazzi; Zahid A. Butt; Felix Carvalho; Vijay Kumar Chattu; Saad M. A. Dahlawi; Giovanni Damiani; Feleke Mekonnen Demeke; Kebede Deribe; Samath Dhamminda Dharmaratne; Daniel Diaz; Alireza Didarloo; Lucas Earl; Maysaa El Sayed Zaki; Maha El Tantawi; Nazir Fattahi; Eduarda Fernandes; Nataliya A. Foigt; Masoud Foroutan; Richard Charles Franklin; Yuming Guo; Arvin Haj-Mirzaian; Samer Hamidi; Hadi Hassankhani; Claudiu Herteliu; Tarig B. Higazi; Mostafa Hosseini; Mehdi Hosseinzadeh; Mowafa Househ; Olayinka Stephen Ilesanmi; Irena M. Ilic; Milena D. Ilic; Seyed Sina Naghibi Irvani; Ravi Prakash Jha; John S. Ji; Jost B. Jonas; Jacek Jerzy Jozwiak; Leila R. Kalankesh; Naser Kamyari; Behzad Karami Matin; Salah Eddin Karimi; Gbenga A. Kayode; Ali Kazemi Karyani; Ejaz Ahmad Khan; Md Nuruzzaman Khan; Khaled Khatab; Mona M. Khater; Neda Kianipour; Yun Jin Kim; Soewarta Kosen; Dian Kusuma; Carlo La Vecchia; Van Charles Lansingh; Paul H. Lee; Shanshan Li; Shokofeh Maleki; Mohammad Ali Mansournia; Francisco Rogerlândio Martins-Melo; Colm McAlinden; Walter Mendoza; Tomislav Mestrovic; Masoud Moghadaszadeh; Abdollah Mohammadian-Hafshejani; Seyyede Momeneh Mohammadi; Shafiu Mohammed; Rahmatollah Moradzadeh; Paula Moraga; Mehdi Naderi; Ahamarshan Jayaraman Nagarajan; Ionut Negoi; Cuong Tat Nguyen; Huong Lan Thi Nguyen; Bogdan Oancea; Andrew T. Olagunju; Ahmed Omar Bali; Obinna E. Onwujekwe; Adrian Pana; Vafa Rahimi-Movaghar; Kiana Ramezanzadeh; David Laith Rawaf; Salman Rawaf; Reza Rawassizadeh; Aziz Rezapour; Ana Isabel Ribeiro; Abdallah M. Samy; Masood Ali Shaikh; Kiomars Sharafi; Aziz Sheikh; Jasvinder A. Singh; Eirini Skiadaresi; Shahin Soltani; Wilma A. Stolk; Mu’awiyyah Babale Sufiyan; Alan J. Thomson; Bach Xuan Tran; Khanh Bao Tran; Bhaskaran Unnikrishnan; Francesco S. Violante; Giang Thu Vu; Tomohide Yamada; Sanni Yaya; Paul Yip; Naohiro Yonemoto; Chuanhua Yu; Yong Yu; Maryam Zamanian; Yunquan Zhang; Zhi-Jiang Zhang; Arash Ziapour

doi:10.1186/s12916-022-02486-y

The prevalence of onchocerciasis in Africa and Yemen, 2000–2018: a geospatial analysis

Chris A. Schmidt, Elizabeth A. Cromwell, Elex Hill, Katie M. Donkers, Megan F. Schipp, Kimberly B. Johnson, David M. Pigott, Simon I. Hay, Jaffar Abbas, Victor Adekanmbi, Olatunji O. Adetokunboh, Muktar Beshir Ahmed, Fahad Mashhour Alanezi, Turki M. Alanzi, Vahid Alipour, Catalina Liliana Andrei, Tudorel Andrei, Davood Anvari, Seth Christopher Yaw Appiah, Muhammad AqeelJalal Arabloo, Mohammad Asghari Jafarabadi, Marcel Ausloos, Atif Amin Baig, Maciej Banach, Till Winfried Bärnighausen, Krittika Bhattacharyya, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Ali Bijani, Oliver J. Brady, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, Zahid A. Butt, Felix Carvalho, Vijay Kumar Chattu, Saad M. A. Dahlawi, Giovanni Damiani, Feleke Mekonnen Demeke, Kebede Deribe, Samath Dhamminda Dharmaratne, Daniel Diaz, Alireza Didarloo, Lucas Earl, Maysaa El Sayed Zaki, Maha El Tantawi, Nazir Fattahi, Eduarda Fernandes, Nataliya A. Foigt, Masoud Foroutan, Richard Charles Franklin, Yuming Guo, Arvin Haj-Mirzaian, Samer Hamidi, Hadi Hassankhani, Claudiu Herteliu, Tarig B. Higazi, Mostafa Hosseini, Mehdi Hosseinzadeh, Mowafa Househ, Olayinka Stephen Ilesanmi, Irena M. Ilic, Milena D. Ilic, Seyed Sina Naghibi Irvani, Ravi Prakash Jha, John S. Ji, Jost B. Jonas, Jacek Jerzy Jozwiak, Leila R. Kalankesh, Naser Kamyari, Behzad Karami Matin, Salah Eddin Karimi, Gbenga A. Kayode, Ali Kazemi Karyani, Ejaz Ahmad Khan, Md Nuruzzaman Khan, Khaled Khatab, Mona M. Khater, Neda Kianipour, Yun Jin Kim, Soewarta Kosen, Dian Kusuma, Carlo La Vecchia, Van Charles Lansingh, Paul H. Lee, Shanshan Li, Shokofeh Maleki, Mohammad Ali Mansournia, Francisco Rogerlândio Martins-Melo, Colm McAlinden, Walter Mendoza, Tomislav Mestrovic, Masoud Moghadaszadeh, Abdollah Mohammadian-Hafshejani, Seyyede Momeneh Mohammadi, Shafiu Mohammed, Rahmatollah Moradzadeh, Paula Moraga, Mehdi Naderi, Ahamarshan Jayaraman Nagarajan, Ionut Negoi, Cuong Tat Nguyen, Huong Lan Thi Nguyen, Bogdan Oancea, Andrew T. Olagunju, Ahmed Omar Bali, Obinna E. Onwujekwe, Adrian Pana, Vafa Rahimi-Movaghar, Kiana Ramezanzadeh, David Laith Rawaf, Salman Rawaf, Reza Rawassizadeh, Aziz Rezapour, Ana Isabel Ribeiro, Abdallah M. Samy, Masood Ali Shaikh, Kiomars Sharafi, Aziz Sheikh, Jasvinder A. Singh, Eirini Skiadaresi, Shahin Soltani, Wilma A. Stolk, Mu’awiyyah Babale Sufiyan, Alan J. Thomson, Bach Xuan Tran, Khanh Bao Tran, Bhaskaran Unnikrishnan, Francesco S. Violante, Giang Thu Vu, Tomohide Yamada, Sanni Yaya, Paul Yip, Naohiro Yonemoto, Chuanhua Yu, Yong Yu, Maryam Zamanian, Yunquan Zhang, Zhi-Jiang Zhang, Arash Ziapour

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

60 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Onchocerciasis is a disease caused by infection with Onchocerca volvulus, which is transmitted to humans via the bite of several species of black fly, and is responsible for permanent blindness or vision loss, as well as severe skin disease. Predominantly endemic in parts of Africa and Yemen, preventive chemotherapy with mass drug administration of ivermectin is the primary intervention recommended for the elimination of its transmission. Methods: A dataset of 18,116 geo-referenced prevalence survey datapoints was used to model annual 2000–2018 infection prevalence in Africa and Yemen. Using Bayesian model-based geostatistics, we generated spatially continuous estimates of all-age 2000–2018 onchocerciasis infection prevalence at the 5 × 5-km resolution as well as aggregations to the national level, along with corresponding estimates of the uncertainty in these predictions. Results: As of 2018, the prevalence of onchocerciasis infection continues to be concentrated across central and western Africa, with the highest mean estimates at the national level in Ghana (12.2%, 95% uncertainty interval [UI] 5.0–22.7). Mean estimates exceed 5% infection prevalence at the national level for Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan. Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that onchocerciasis infection has declined over the last two decades throughout western and central Africa. Focal areas of Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Uganda continue to have mean microfiladermia prevalence estimates exceeding 25%. At and above this level, the continuation or initiation of mass drug administration with ivermectin is supported. If national programs aim to eliminate onchocerciasis infection, additional surveillance or supervision of areas of predicted high prevalence would be warranted to ensure sufficiently high coverage of program interventions.

Original language	English (US)
Journal	BMC Medicine
Volume	20
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02486-y
State	Published - Sep 7 2022

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Medicine

Access to Document

10.1186/s12916-022-02486-y

https://repository.kaust.edu.sa/bitstream/10754/681134/1/s12916-022-02486-y.pdf

Cite this

Schmidt, C. A., Cromwell, E. A., Hill, E., Donkers, K. M., Schipp, M. F., Johnson, K. B., Pigott, D. M., Hay, S. I., Abbas, J., Adekanmbi, V., Adetokunboh, O. O., Ahmed, M. B., Alanezi, F. M., Alanzi, T. M., Alipour, V., Andrei, C. L., Andrei, T., Anvari, D., Appiah, S. C. Y., ... Ziapour, A. (2022). The prevalence of onchocerciasis in Africa and Yemen, 2000–2018: a geospatial analysis. BMC Medicine, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02486-y

@article{9f37e4f0b2a34b44bed6094b3179de80,

title = "The prevalence of onchocerciasis in Africa and Yemen, 2000–2018: a geospatial analysis",

abstract = "Background: Onchocerciasis is a disease caused by infection with Onchocerca volvulus, which is transmitted to humans via the bite of several species of black fly, and is responsible for permanent blindness or vision loss, as well as severe skin disease. Predominantly endemic in parts of Africa and Yemen, preventive chemotherapy with mass drug administration of ivermectin is the primary intervention recommended for the elimination of its transmission. Methods: A dataset of 18,116 geo-referenced prevalence survey datapoints was used to model annual 2000–2018 infection prevalence in Africa and Yemen. Using Bayesian model-based geostatistics, we generated spatially continuous estimates of all-age 2000–2018 onchocerciasis infection prevalence at the 5 × 5-km resolution as well as aggregations to the national level, along with corresponding estimates of the uncertainty in these predictions. Results: As of 2018, the prevalence of onchocerciasis infection continues to be concentrated across central and western Africa, with the highest mean estimates at the national level in Ghana (12.2%, 95% uncertainty interval [UI] 5.0–22.7). Mean estimates exceed 5% infection prevalence at the national level for Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan. Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that onchocerciasis infection has declined over the last two decades throughout western and central Africa. Focal areas of Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Uganda continue to have mean microfiladermia prevalence estimates exceeding 25%. At and above this level, the continuation or initiation of mass drug administration with ivermectin is supported. If national programs aim to eliminate onchocerciasis infection, additional surveillance or supervision of areas of predicted high prevalence would be warranted to ensure sufficiently high coverage of program interventions.",

author = "Schmidt, {Chris A.} and Cromwell, {Elizabeth A.} and Elex Hill and Donkers, {Katie M.} and Schipp, {Megan F.} and Johnson, {Kimberly B.} and Pigott, {David M.} and Hay, {Simon I.} and Jaffar Abbas and Victor Adekanmbi and Adetokunboh, {Olatunji O.} and Ahmed, {Muktar Beshir} and Alanezi, {Fahad Mashhour} and Alanzi, {Turki M.} and Vahid Alipour and Andrei, {Catalina Liliana} and Tudorel Andrei and Davood Anvari and Appiah, {Seth Christopher Yaw} and Muhammad Aqeel and Jalal Arabloo and Jafarabadi, {Mohammad Asghari} and Marcel Ausloos and Baig, {Atif Amin} and Maciej Banach and B{\"a}rnighausen, {Till Winfried} and Krittika Bhattacharyya and Bhutta, {Zulfiqar A.} and Ali Bijani and Brady, {Oliver J.} and Bragazzi, {Nicola Luigi} and Butt, {Zahid A.} and Felix Carvalho and Chattu, {Vijay Kumar} and Dahlawi, {Saad M. A.} and Giovanni Damiani and Demeke, {Feleke Mekonnen} and Kebede Deribe and Dharmaratne, {Samath Dhamminda} and Daniel Diaz and Alireza Didarloo and Lucas Earl and Zaki, {Maysaa El Sayed} and {El Tantawi}, Maha and Nazir Fattahi and Eduarda Fernandes and Foigt, {Nataliya A.} and Masoud Foroutan and Franklin, {Richard Charles} and Yuming Guo and Arvin Haj-Mirzaian and Samer Hamidi and Hadi Hassankhani and Claudiu Herteliu and Higazi, {Tarig B.} and Mostafa Hosseini and Mehdi Hosseinzadeh and Mowafa Househ and Ilesanmi, {Olayinka Stephen} and Ilic, {Irena M.} and Ilic, {Milena D.} and Irvani, {Seyed Sina Naghibi} and Jha, {Ravi Prakash} and Ji, {John S.} and Jonas, {Jost B.} and Jozwiak, {Jacek Jerzy} and Kalankesh, {Leila R.} and Naser Kamyari and Matin, {Behzad Karami} and Karimi, {Salah Eddin} and Kayode, {Gbenga A.} and Karyani, {Ali Kazemi} and Khan, {Ejaz Ahmad} and Khan, {Md Nuruzzaman} and Khaled Khatab and Khater, {Mona M.} and Neda Kianipour and Kim, {Yun Jin} and Soewarta Kosen and Dian Kusuma and {La Vecchia}, Carlo and Lansingh, {Van Charles} and Lee, {Paul H.} and Shanshan Li and Shokofeh Maleki and Mansournia, {Mohammad Ali} and Martins-Melo, {Francisco Rogerl{\^a}ndio} and Colm McAlinden and Walter Mendoza and Tomislav Mestrovic and Masoud Moghadaszadeh and Abdollah Mohammadian-Hafshejani and Mohammadi, {Seyyede Momeneh} and Shafiu Mohammed and Rahmatollah Moradzadeh and Paula Moraga and Mehdi Naderi and Nagarajan, {Ahamarshan Jayaraman} and Ionut Negoi and Nguyen, {Cuong Tat} and Nguyen, {Huong Lan Thi} and Bogdan Oancea and Olagunju, {Andrew T.} and Bali, {Ahmed Omar} and Onwujekwe, {Obinna E.} and Adrian Pana and Vafa Rahimi-Movaghar and Kiana Ramezanzadeh and Rawaf, {David Laith} and Salman Rawaf and Reza Rawassizadeh and Aziz Rezapour and Ribeiro, {Ana Isabel} and Samy, {Abdallah M.} and Shaikh, {Masood Ali} and Kiomars Sharafi and Aziz Sheikh and Singh, {Jasvinder A.} and Eirini Skiadaresi and Shahin Soltani and Stolk, {Wilma A.} and Sufiyan, {Mu{\textquoteright}awiyyah Babale} and Thomson, {Alan J.} and Tran, {Bach Xuan} and Tran, {Khanh Bao} and Bhaskaran Unnikrishnan and Violante, {Francesco S.} and Vu, {Giang Thu} and Tomohide Yamada and Sanni Yaya and Paul Yip and Naohiro Yonemoto and Chuanhua Yu and Yong Yu and Maryam Zamanian and Yunquan Zhang and Zhi-Jiang Zhang and Arash Ziapour",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2022-09-12 Acknowledgements: This work was primarily supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation OPP1132415. The funder had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. The corresponding author had full access to study data and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication. Data accessed via the ESPEN portal belong to the Ministries of Health and we would like to acknowledge the national onchocerciasis control and elimination programs for making these data available. F Carvalho FCT acknowledges Funda{\c c}{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of the Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences - UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy - i4HB; FCT/MCTES (Minist{\'e}rio da Ci{\^e}ncia, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior) through the project UIDB/50006/2020M Ausloos, A Pana and C Herteliu are partially supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNDS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P4-ID-PCCF-2016-0084. C Herteliu and A Pana are partially supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNDS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P2-2.1-SOL-2020-2-0351. A M Samy acknowledges the support from the Egyptian Fulbright Mission program and Ain Shams University. A I Ribeiro was supported by National Funds through FCT, under the program of Stimulus of Scientific Employment “Individual Support” within the contract CEECIND/02386/2018. A Sheikh acknowledges the support of Health Data Research UK. M N Khan acknowledges the support of Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. B Unnikrishnan acknowledges Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal. K Deribe is supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant number 201900/Z/16/Z] as part of his International Intermediate Fellowship. O Adetokunboh acknowledges the South African Department of Science and Innovation, and National Research Foundation. Y J Kim acknowledges support by the Research Management Centre, Xiamen University Malaysia [No. XMUMRF/2020-C6/ITCM/0004]. T B{\"a}rnighausen was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation through the Alexander von Humboldt Professor award, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. W Stolk gratefully acknowledges funding from the NTD Modelling Consortium by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (grant number OPP1184344).",

year = "2022",

month = sep,

day = "7",

doi = "10.1186/s12916-022-02486-y",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "20",

journal = "BMC Medicine",

issn = "1741-7015",

publisher = "Springer Verlag",

number = "1",

}

Schmidt, CA, Cromwell, EA, Hill, E, Donkers, KM, Schipp, MF, Johnson, KB, Pigott, DM, Hay, SI, Abbas, J, Adekanmbi, V, Adetokunboh, OO, Ahmed, MB, Alanezi, FM, Alanzi, TM, Alipour, V, Andrei, CL, Andrei, T, Anvari, D, Appiah, SCY, Aqeel, M, Arabloo, J, Jafarabadi, MA, Ausloos, M, Baig, AA, Banach, M, Bärnighausen, TW, Bhattacharyya, K, Bhutta, ZA, Bijani, A, Brady, OJ, Bragazzi, NL, Butt, ZA, Carvalho, F, Chattu, VK, Dahlawi, SMA, Damiani, G, Demeke, FM, Deribe, K, Dharmaratne, SD, Diaz, D, Didarloo, A, Earl, L, Zaki, MES, El Tantawi, M, Fattahi, N, Fernandes, E, Foigt, NA, Foroutan, M, Franklin, RC, Guo, Y, Haj-Mirzaian, A, Hamidi, S, Hassankhani, H, Herteliu, C, Higazi, TB, Hosseini, M, Hosseinzadeh, M, Househ, M, Ilesanmi, OS, Ilic, IM, Ilic, MD, Irvani, SSN, Jha, RP, Ji, JS, Jonas, JB, Jozwiak, JJ, Kalankesh, LR, Kamyari, N, Matin, BK, Karimi, SE, Kayode, GA, Karyani, AK, Khan, EA, Khan, MN, Khatab, K, Khater, MM, Kianipour, N, Kim, YJ, Kosen, S, Kusuma, D, La Vecchia, C, Lansingh, VC, Lee, PH, Li, S, Maleki, S, Mansournia, MA, Martins-Melo, FR, McAlinden, C, Mendoza, W, Mestrovic, T, Moghadaszadeh, M, Mohammadian-Hafshejani, A, Mohammadi, SM, Mohammed, S, Moradzadeh, R, Moraga, P, Naderi, M, Nagarajan, AJ, Negoi, I, Nguyen, CT, Nguyen, HLT, Oancea, B, Olagunju, AT, Bali, AO, Onwujekwe, OE, Pana, A, Rahimi-Movaghar, V, Ramezanzadeh, K, Rawaf, DL, Rawaf, S, Rawassizadeh, R, Rezapour, A, Ribeiro, AI, Samy, AM, Shaikh, MA, Sharafi, K, Sheikh, A, Singh, JA, Skiadaresi, E, Soltani, S, Stolk, WA, Sufiyan, MB, Thomson, AJ, Tran, BX, Tran, KB, Unnikrishnan, B, Violante, FS, Vu, GT, Yamada, T, Yaya, S, Yip, P, Yonemoto, N, Yu, C, Yu, Y, Zamanian, M, Zhang, Y, Zhang, Z-J & Ziapour, A 2022, 'The prevalence of onchocerciasis in Africa and Yemen, 2000–2018: a geospatial analysis', BMC Medicine, vol. 20, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02486-y

TY - JOUR

T1 - The prevalence of onchocerciasis in Africa and Yemen, 2000–2018: a geospatial analysis

AU - Schmidt, Chris A.

AU - Cromwell, Elizabeth A.

AU - Hill, Elex

AU - Donkers, Katie M.

AU - Schipp, Megan F.

AU - Johnson, Kimberly B.

AU - Pigott, David M.

AU - Hay, Simon I.

AU - Abbas, Jaffar

AU - Adekanmbi, Victor

AU - Adetokunboh, Olatunji O.

AU - Ahmed, Muktar Beshir

AU - Alanezi, Fahad Mashhour

AU - Alanzi, Turki M.

AU - Alipour, Vahid

AU - Andrei, Catalina Liliana

AU - Andrei, Tudorel

AU - Anvari, Davood

AU - Appiah, Seth Christopher Yaw

AU - Aqeel, Muhammad

AU - Arabloo, Jalal

AU - Jafarabadi, Mohammad Asghari

AU - Ausloos, Marcel

AU - Baig, Atif Amin

AU - Banach, Maciej

AU - Bärnighausen, Till Winfried

AU - Bhattacharyya, Krittika

AU - Bhutta, Zulfiqar A.

AU - Bijani, Ali

AU - Brady, Oliver J.

AU - Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi

AU - Butt, Zahid A.

AU - Carvalho, Felix

AU - Chattu, Vijay Kumar

AU - Dahlawi, Saad M. A.

AU - Damiani, Giovanni

AU - Demeke, Feleke Mekonnen

AU - Deribe, Kebede

AU - Dharmaratne, Samath Dhamminda

AU - Diaz, Daniel

AU - Didarloo, Alireza

AU - Earl, Lucas

AU - Zaki, Maysaa El Sayed

AU - El Tantawi, Maha

AU - Fattahi, Nazir

AU - Fernandes, Eduarda

AU - Foigt, Nataliya A.

AU - Foroutan, Masoud

AU - Franklin, Richard Charles

AU - Guo, Yuming

AU - Haj-Mirzaian, Arvin

AU - Hamidi, Samer

AU - Hassankhani, Hadi

AU - Herteliu, Claudiu

AU - Higazi, Tarig B.

AU - Hosseini, Mostafa

AU - Hosseinzadeh, Mehdi

AU - Househ, Mowafa

AU - Ilesanmi, Olayinka Stephen

AU - Ilic, Irena M.

AU - Ilic, Milena D.

AU - Irvani, Seyed Sina Naghibi

AU - Jha, Ravi Prakash

AU - Ji, John S.

AU - Jonas, Jost B.

AU - Jozwiak, Jacek Jerzy

AU - Kalankesh, Leila R.

AU - Kamyari, Naser

AU - Matin, Behzad Karami

AU - Karimi, Salah Eddin

AU - Kayode, Gbenga A.

AU - Karyani, Ali Kazemi

AU - Khan, Ejaz Ahmad

AU - Khan, Md Nuruzzaman

AU - Khatab, Khaled

AU - Khater, Mona M.

AU - Kianipour, Neda

AU - Kim, Yun Jin

AU - Kosen, Soewarta

AU - Kusuma, Dian

AU - La Vecchia, Carlo

AU - Lansingh, Van Charles

AU - Lee, Paul H.

AU - Li, Shanshan

AU - Maleki, Shokofeh

AU - Mansournia, Mohammad Ali

AU - Martins-Melo, Francisco Rogerlândio

AU - McAlinden, Colm

AU - Mendoza, Walter

AU - Mestrovic, Tomislav

AU - Moghadaszadeh, Masoud

AU - Mohammadian-Hafshejani, Abdollah

AU - Mohammadi, Seyyede Momeneh

AU - Mohammed, Shafiu

AU - Moradzadeh, Rahmatollah

AU - Moraga, Paula

AU - Naderi, Mehdi

AU - Nagarajan, Ahamarshan Jayaraman

AU - Negoi, Ionut

AU - Nguyen, Cuong Tat

AU - Nguyen, Huong Lan Thi

AU - Oancea, Bogdan

AU - Olagunju, Andrew T.

AU - Bali, Ahmed Omar

AU - Onwujekwe, Obinna E.

AU - Pana, Adrian

AU - Rahimi-Movaghar, Vafa

AU - Ramezanzadeh, Kiana

AU - Rawaf, David Laith

AU - Rawaf, Salman

AU - Rawassizadeh, Reza

AU - Rezapour, Aziz

AU - Ribeiro, Ana Isabel

AU - Samy, Abdallah M.

AU - Shaikh, Masood Ali

AU - Sharafi, Kiomars

AU - Sheikh, Aziz

AU - Singh, Jasvinder A.

AU - Skiadaresi, Eirini

AU - Soltani, Shahin

AU - Stolk, Wilma A.

AU - Sufiyan, Mu’awiyyah Babale

AU - Thomson, Alan J.

AU - Tran, Bach Xuan

AU - Tran, Khanh Bao

AU - Unnikrishnan, Bhaskaran

AU - Violante, Francesco S.

AU - Vu, Giang Thu

AU - Yamada, Tomohide

AU - Yaya, Sanni

AU - Yip, Paul

AU - Yonemoto, Naohiro

AU - Yu, Chuanhua

AU - Yu, Yong

AU - Zamanian, Maryam

AU - Zhang, Yunquan

AU - Zhang, Zhi-Jiang

AU - Ziapour, Arash

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2022-09-12 Acknowledgements: This work was primarily supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation OPP1132415. The funder had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. The corresponding author had full access to study data and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication. Data accessed via the ESPEN portal belong to the Ministries of Health and we would like to acknowledge the national onchocerciasis control and elimination programs for making these data available. F Carvalho FCT acknowledges Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of the Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences - UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy - i4HB; FCT/MCTES (Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior) through the project UIDB/50006/2020M Ausloos, A Pana and C Herteliu are partially supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNDS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P4-ID-PCCF-2016-0084. C Herteliu and A Pana are partially supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNDS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P2-2.1-SOL-2020-2-0351. A M Samy acknowledges the support from the Egyptian Fulbright Mission program and Ain Shams University. A I Ribeiro was supported by National Funds through FCT, under the program of Stimulus of Scientific Employment “Individual Support” within the contract CEECIND/02386/2018. A Sheikh acknowledges the support of Health Data Research UK. M N Khan acknowledges the support of Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. B Unnikrishnan acknowledges Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal. K Deribe is supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant number 201900/Z/16/Z] as part of his International Intermediate Fellowship. O Adetokunboh acknowledges the South African Department of Science and Innovation, and National Research Foundation. Y J Kim acknowledges support by the Research Management Centre, Xiamen University Malaysia [No. XMUMRF/2020-C6/ITCM/0004]. T Bärnighausen was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation through the Alexander von Humboldt Professor award, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. W Stolk gratefully acknowledges funding from the NTD Modelling Consortium by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (grant number OPP1184344).

PY - 2022/9/7

Y1 - 2022/9/7

N2 - Background: Onchocerciasis is a disease caused by infection with Onchocerca volvulus, which is transmitted to humans via the bite of several species of black fly, and is responsible for permanent blindness or vision loss, as well as severe skin disease. Predominantly endemic in parts of Africa and Yemen, preventive chemotherapy with mass drug administration of ivermectin is the primary intervention recommended for the elimination of its transmission. Methods: A dataset of 18,116 geo-referenced prevalence survey datapoints was used to model annual 2000–2018 infection prevalence in Africa and Yemen. Using Bayesian model-based geostatistics, we generated spatially continuous estimates of all-age 2000–2018 onchocerciasis infection prevalence at the 5 × 5-km resolution as well as aggregations to the national level, along with corresponding estimates of the uncertainty in these predictions. Results: As of 2018, the prevalence of onchocerciasis infection continues to be concentrated across central and western Africa, with the highest mean estimates at the national level in Ghana (12.2%, 95% uncertainty interval [UI] 5.0–22.7). Mean estimates exceed 5% infection prevalence at the national level for Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan. Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that onchocerciasis infection has declined over the last two decades throughout western and central Africa. Focal areas of Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Uganda continue to have mean microfiladermia prevalence estimates exceeding 25%. At and above this level, the continuation or initiation of mass drug administration with ivermectin is supported. If national programs aim to eliminate onchocerciasis infection, additional surveillance or supervision of areas of predicted high prevalence would be warranted to ensure sufficiently high coverage of program interventions.

AB - Background: Onchocerciasis is a disease caused by infection with Onchocerca volvulus, which is transmitted to humans via the bite of several species of black fly, and is responsible for permanent blindness or vision loss, as well as severe skin disease. Predominantly endemic in parts of Africa and Yemen, preventive chemotherapy with mass drug administration of ivermectin is the primary intervention recommended for the elimination of its transmission. Methods: A dataset of 18,116 geo-referenced prevalence survey datapoints was used to model annual 2000–2018 infection prevalence in Africa and Yemen. Using Bayesian model-based geostatistics, we generated spatially continuous estimates of all-age 2000–2018 onchocerciasis infection prevalence at the 5 × 5-km resolution as well as aggregations to the national level, along with corresponding estimates of the uncertainty in these predictions. Results: As of 2018, the prevalence of onchocerciasis infection continues to be concentrated across central and western Africa, with the highest mean estimates at the national level in Ghana (12.2%, 95% uncertainty interval [UI] 5.0–22.7). Mean estimates exceed 5% infection prevalence at the national level for Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan. Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that onchocerciasis infection has declined over the last two decades throughout western and central Africa. Focal areas of Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Uganda continue to have mean microfiladermia prevalence estimates exceeding 25%. At and above this level, the continuation or initiation of mass drug administration with ivermectin is supported. If national programs aim to eliminate onchocerciasis infection, additional surveillance or supervision of areas of predicted high prevalence would be warranted to ensure sufficiently high coverage of program interventions.

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/681134

UR - https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-022-02486-y

U2 - 10.1186/s12916-022-02486-y

DO - 10.1186/s12916-022-02486-y

M3 - Article

C2 - 36068517

SN - 1741-7015

VL - 20

JO - BMC Medicine

JF - BMC Medicine

IS - 1

ER -

The prevalence of onchocerciasis in Africa and Yemen, 2000–2018: a geospatial analysis

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this