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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 2007, over 54.6 million people living in 16 African countries were receiving regular ivermectin treatment through this pioneering approach
APOC’s achievements - (at December 2007)
APOC
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- 16.2 million cases of infection prevented since the start of APOC corresponding to a drop of the number of cases from 41.8 million (1995) to 25.7 million (2008)
- 54.6 million people receiving regular treatment (90 million annually by 2010)
- 117 000 communities involved
- >600 000 community-directed distributors involved
- 108 projects running in 16 countries
- 49 000 health workers trained
- 850 000 disability adjusted life years (DALYs) per year averted
- Treatment cost of annual ComDT with ivermectin: US$0.57 per person
- 17% economic rate of return
- US$ 7 per DALY averted
- Health interventions co-implemented with CDTI: 10,737,298 persons were covered in 2007
- Protecting 102 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
- Blindness cases dropped from 385,000 cases in 1995 to 265,000 in 2008
- By 2010, sight of 800,000 people will have been saved
- Estimated 7.5 million years of labour added (600,000 person-years annually)
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Related links
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APOC "scorecard"
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Objectives
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Control strategy
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History and future of APOC: a timeline
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Governance, structure and partners
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Funding
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Contact
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