Photo by the Inter-American Development Bank. Meetings were held with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and other government officials, as well as with representatives of Congress, nongovernmental organizations, and human rights groups. The mission, which included stops in Argentina, Chile, and Jamaica, helped to set the agenda for discussions at the April 1997 consultation at The Carter Center. Ambassador Ronaldo Sardenberg, minister of strategic affairs, represented President Cardoso at the consultation in Atlanta. Endemic to 37 countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, river blindness spreads when parasites enter the body through bites from black flies that breed near fast-flowing rivers.
Victims experience constant itching, rashes, eyesight damage, and often blindness.
Since its inception in 1993, OEPA has provided financial, managerial, and technical assistance to support river blindness programs in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela.