The intake and transmissibility of Onchocerca volvulus microfilariae by Simulium damnosum fed on patients treated with Diethylcarbamazine, suramin or Mel W

Abstract

The best hope for the control of transmission of Onchocerca volvulus over much of Africa lies in combining larvicidal measures directed against the Simulium vectors with chemotherapeutic measures designed to reduce the reservoir of transmissible microfilariae in man.There are few drugs effective against O. volvulus. Diethylcarbamazine kills the microfilariae but has virtually no effect on the adult worms. Suramin kills adult worms and many, but not all, of the microfilariae. Mel W kills adult worms but has little or no action on microfilariae. All these drugs suffer at present from disadvantages of toxicity, which tend to limit their use on a mass scale in the field. Nevertheless, before they, or indeed any new drugs with similar actions on the parasites, can be used intelligently for the control of onchocerciasis transmission, it is necessary to have accurate quantitative information on the effect that each of them has on the microfilarial population available for intake by Simulium, as well as on their actions on the developmental potential of those microfilariae ingested by the flies.The present paper describes the effects of treatment with various courses of diethylcarbamazine, suramin or Mel W on the numbers of microfilariae ingested by groups of S. damnosum and on the numbers of infective larvae developing therefrom.