The present state of play

River blindness and LF are each debilitating ailments that may go away individuals unable to work, examine or present for his or her households, resulting in poverty and stigma.

As of 2022, 288 million individuals have been susceptible to LF, a illness that makes physique components swell and causes intermittent fevers and secondary infections. In the meantime, at the very least 246 million persons are susceptible to river blindness, which causes agonising itching and disfiguring pores and skin situations, and might result in everlasting blindness.

However there was progress. Concerted world efforts to trace these ailments, and a long time spent persistently following the advisable World Well being Group (WHO) methods, imply 19 nations have already eradicated LF as a public well being drawback and 4 have stopped the transmission of river blindness. Within the Americas, river blindness has been eradicated in Colombia (2013), Ecuador (2014), Mexico (2015) and Guatemala (2016). We’re studying and making use of data gathered from these success tales.

Many individuals and organisations have supported this progress: from pharmaceutical corporations Merck & Co and GlaxoSmithKline, who’ve donated hundreds of thousands of doses of medicine, to the well being employees and volunteers on the bottom who distribute the medicine within the native communities they serve.

Up to now, Sightsavers has supported greater than 640 million remedies for river blindness and 587 million remedies for LF. As of 2022, we estimate that greater than 18.9 million persons are not susceptible to river blindness and LF attributable to Sightsavers-supported remedies. The growth of the RLM Fund signifies that many extra individuals can be shielded from these ailments.