Journal of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology
Open Access
ISSN: 2155-9570
ISSN: 2155-9570
Pepin Williams Atipo Tsiba
Marien Ngouabi University, Republic of Congo
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Clin Exp Ophthalmol
Onchocerciasis is a dermal oculocutaneous filariasis caused by Onchocerca volvulus. It is transmitted to humans by the bite of a black fly called Simulium. Transmission is by the blood-sucking female insect. This female insect becomes infected by biting a sick man and then infects a healthy person by another bite. Geographic distribution of onchocerciasis includes tropical Africa, the corresponding region of South America and Central America and Yemen. The adult worm is hosted in subcutaneous nodules where it can live about 10 years, during which the female releases millions of embryos. Those will give life to free microfilariae (Onchocerca volvulus) attracted by the light, which migrating from the dermis to the eye and induce damages responsible of the â??river blindnessâ?. The general signs begin around 1 year after the infecting bite and are all the more affirmed that contamination is repetitive; river blindness is a cumulative parasitosis. The general syndrome includes headache, asthenia; weight loss and kidney damage. The cutaneous syndrome is characteristic and dominated by the following signs: pruritus (filarial scabies), lymphoedema, skin pigmentation and subcutaneous nodules (onchocerciasis nodule) harboring the adult heartworms. Ocular disorders are observed in about 70% of people living in endemic areas. They are severe in case of immunosuppression. These ocular manifestations are proportional to rate of microfilariae in the body, and are mainly represented by keratitis and chorioretinitis.
Pepin Williams Atipo Tsiba has completed his PhD from Marien Ngouabi University of Brazzaville and Post-doctoral study in Switzerland. He has obtained the Federal Ophthalmology title from the Swiss Medical Federation (FMH) and the FEBO (Fellow European Board of Ophthalmology) title in 2005. He is an Assistant Professor in Ophthalmology at Marien Ngouabi University of Brazzaville. He is the Head of Ophthalmology Department at the University Hospital of Brazzaville. He has published over 20 articles in reputed journals.
Email: atipo.kani@gmail.com