River blindness is caused by parasitic worms that live just underneath the skin. Mitchell is one of 13 participants chosen out of about 100 applicants for this prestigious program, which offers students research traineeships in international public health issues in Ghana, Jamaica, Guatemala, Peru, Bangladesh, and Trinidad. Mitchell is going to Legon, Ghana, to work at the Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research for three months, which was his first choice. I just never thought that I would have an opportunity to do research in another country so early in my career. Mitchell will conduct research on a parasitic disease called onchocerciasis, commonly known as river blindness.
River blindness is caused by parasitic worms that live just underneath the skin.
The worms can migrate through the body to the eye. When the worms die there, bodies scar the cornea, ultimately resulting in blindness. The worms are transmitted to people through the bite of the black fly. The black fly reproduces by laying eggs in fast-moving rivers. The disease currently is controlled in West Africa through a program that uses insecticides in the fast-moving rivers to kill the black fly larvae.