A major vaccination campaign on Onchocerca Volvulus (OV) and Elephantiasis has been launched in Rumbek Central county, Lakes State.
The initiative is collaboration between Rumbek Central County Health Department, the State Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other local health partners.
The campaign five-day campaign targets more than 221,000 people in Rumbek Central County.
OV is also called river blindness and has a lot of complications. Sometimes, the patient suffers blindness or visual impairments.
It is caused by the parasitic work Onchcerca volvulus and is transmitted through repeated bites by blackflies of the genus Simulium.
George Maluac, the County Medical Officer in Rumbek Central County told Radio Tamazuj on Friday that the vaccination campaign should have been held in September last year.
“It did not happen as planned but the activity was pushed to December and then to date. We have started a so called Onchocerca Volvulus (OV) campaign which OV in other words and then lymphatic filarisasis commonly known as elephantiasis, ” he said.
“River blindness, has a lot of complications. Sometimes, you end up blind or you end up with vision impairments because you don’t see and it affects the skin of the patient. It also cause swelling of the muscles, ” he added.
Maluac continued,” We are treating children aged five and above. We also have a weighing scale that we can use for the treatment of OV,” he said.
“These drugs are taken to prevent you from OV. You also take it to treat OV when you are already a victim. We know that OV is already in Lakes State and across the country or globe,” Maluac added.
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