About us
The goal of the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) is to eliminate onchocerciasis as a disease of public health importance in Africa. The Programme was set up in 1995 to expand and build on the successes of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa (OCP).
At the heart of APOC’s strategy to eliminate onchocerciasis is community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI). This approach relies on active community participation to distribute ivermectin treatment. Communities plan their own distribution systems and make decisions about how and when the ivermectin is distributed. They decide which members of the community will be trained to deliver the treatment, and they also monitor the CDTI process.
At the end of 2010, over 75.8 million people living in 16 African countries were receiving regular ivermectin treatment through this pioneering approach
APOC’s achievements - (at December 2010)
- 16.2 million persons infected, corresponding to a drop of the number of cases from 41.8 million (1995) to 25.7 million (2008)
- 75.8 million people treated in 2010
- >146 000 communities involved
- >630 000 community-directed distributors involved
- 108 projects running in 15 countries
- >51,292 health workers trained
- 1 Million disability adjusted life years (DALYs) per year averted
- Treatment cost of annual ComDT with ivermectin: US$0.58 per person
- 17% economic rate of return
- The average cost of CDTI is S$ 7 per DALY averted
- Health interventions co-implemented with CDTI: over 54,9 people reached in 2010
- Protecting 120 million at-risk individuals in poor rural communities
- The itching prevalence was reduced by 68% between 1995 and 2008 with 8.9 million cases prevented since commencement of operations
- By 2010, sight of 800,000 people will have been saved
- Estimated 7.5 million years of labour added (600,000 person-years annually)
- Agreement reached to pre test CDI strategy in curricula of 52 faculties of medicine and nursing schools in Africa
- 1.8 billion ivermectin tablets delivered by communities (cumulative)
- More than 522 million treatments provided by communities: 1997-2010 (cumulative)
