Over 18 million people in the world are infected by onchocerciasis. More than 270,000 people are estimated to be blind due to onchocerciasis. Over 120 million people in 30 African and 6 Latin American countries are at risk of contracting river blindness. IEF fights onchocerciasis by providing annual doses of Mectizan to at risk populations. IEF has Onchocerciasis control programs in Cameroon and Malawi.
Projects begin with rapid epidemioligical surveys.
They then coordinate the distribution of the drug in high prevalence areas. Using a community-based approach, IEF conducts intensive education and motivation campaigns to the affected communities to assure continued participation. To ensure sustainability, IEF assists the Ministry of Health in each country to develop an on-going Mectizan distribution policy. In 1989, in collaboration with a Guatemalan NGO, IEF began a pilot project targeting 15,000 people in Chimaltenango Province, Guatemala. That same year, the IEF worked with Africare in Kwara State, Nigeria to start the first community-based ivermectin distribution project which gave more that 200,000 treatments by 1993.