river blindness

river blindness

noun

Definition of RIVER BLINDNESS

: onchocerciasis

First Known Use of RIVER BLINDNESS

1953

Rhymes with RIVER BLINDNESS

color blindness

riv·er blindness

noun \ˈriv-ər-\   (Medical Dictionary)

Medical Definition of RIVER BLINDNESS

: onchocerciasis

river blindness

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Human disease caused by a filarial worm native to Africa but also found in parts of tropical America and transmitted by several blackflies. It is so called because the flies that transmit the disease breed on rivers and mostly affect riverine populations. Blindness is caused by dead microfilariae—the larvae that can be produced for some 15–18 years by adult worms—inside the eye. River blindness is common in savannah areas of Africa and in Guatemala and Mexico. In 1987 the World Health Organization began to distribute the drug ivermectin (originally developed for use against livestock parasites), which eliminates the microfilariae, though it does not kill the adult parasite.

Variants of RIVER BLINDNESS

river blindness or onchocerciasis