ISSN: 2313-7479 Adv. Biomed. Pharma. 3:3 (2016) 166-172 Case Study Prevalence of Onchocerciasis and Efficacy of Ivermectin: a brief study from Idogun, Nigeria. Afolabi Olajide Joseph Department of Biology, Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria. *Corresponding Author: Afolabi Olajide Joseph Department of Biology, Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria. E-mail address: jideafo77@gmail.com; Tel; 234(0)8035959391 Running Title: Prevalence of Onchocerciasis and Efficacy of Ivermectin Received: 05 May, 2016; Revised: 10 June, 2016 Accepted: 21 June, 2016 Available online at http://www.thescientificpub.com http://dx.doi.org/10.19046/abp.v03i03.06 Abstract Onchocerciasis is an eye and skin infection caused by a filarial worm: Onchocerca volvulus and transmitted by haematophagous female Simulium blackfly. The present study was carried out in Idogun; an endemic community in Ose local government area, Ondo State, to investigate the prevalence of onchocerciasis and the efficiency of Ivermectin drug. Simple random sampling technique was employed in selecting 384 respondents of both genders not below 10 years of age that attended the community health centre and a structured questionnaire was used to obtain epidemiological information. Skin snips aseptically obtained from the respondents were prepared for microscopy using sedimentation method and subsequently viewed under X10 objective lens of light microscope. The results showed that the prevalence of the disease was significantly different among the age groups and genders (P <0.05) with highest prevalence of the disease (43.6%) observed in age group of 51-60 years while the lowest prevalence (0%) was observed in age group 81-90years. Meanwhile, highest average microfilarial load (12.2mf/mg) was observed in age group 71-80years while the lowest average microfilarial load (0mf/mg) was observed in age group 81-90years. Similarly, the prevalence of infection (M=29.4%, F=26.5%) and average microfilarial load of the parasite (M=8.2mf/mg, F=7.6mf/mg) were significantly higher in male than the female gender. The drug (ivermectin) was observed to be effective in the community but the efficiency varied significantly among the age groups (P<0.05). The highest efficiency of the drug (87.5%) was observed in age group 21-30years while the lowest efficiency (16.5%) was observed in age group 71-80years. The results revealed that the community is still endemic for river blindness; hence there is need for continuous distribution of the drug in the community in order to completely eradicate the disease. Keywords: Onchocerciasis, Prevalence, Ivermectin, Idogun, Efficiency. Introduction Onchocerciasis also known as river blindness is a parasitic disease caused by a filarial nematode (Onchocerca volvulus) and vectored by a female Simulium blackfly. The disease is endemic in 28 countries of Africa, 6 countries in the Americas and in Yemen. Some 18 million people are estimated to be infected worldwide and over 99% of them are living in Africa [1] In Africa, hyper endemic villages can have infection rate of 100%, 10% of the entire village may be blind, including up to 50% of those aged 40 years and older [2]. An estimated 40 million people are at risk of the infection worldwide with approximately 500,000 people blind due to onchocerciasis [3]. The clinical manifestations of onchocerciasis vary from one geographical region to another, although, there are general manifestations of the disease that are common in patients such as papules, pruritus, ocular lesions, lizard skin and leopard skin [4]. The disease has been noted to be a major obstacle to the development in endemic areas especially in Africa. The fear of river blindness has made farmers to abandon fertile land which would have been cultivated for Advances in Biomedicine and Pharmacy (An International Journal of Biomedicine, Natural Products and Pharmacy) 166