river blindness

noun

: onchocerciasis

Examples of river blindness in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

One clue is that sufferers of a disease called river blindness are much more likely to have nodding syndrome as well. —Jennifer Abbasi, Discover Magazine, 20 Feb. 2013

Yes, ivermectin is approved for some human uses: It is used to cure parasitic diseases that mostly occur in low-income countries, such as river blindness and liver flukes. —Maryn McKenna, WIRED, 19 July 2023

Twitter feed has just about had it with the widespread off-label use of ivermectin—a generic anti-parasitic drug commonly used in veterinary medicine, as well as a treatment for diseases like river blindness in humans—as an alternative to the Covid-19 vaccines. —Natalie Shure, The New Republic, 30 Aug. 2021

Benton, who ran the World Bank’s river blindness project for over 20 years, has written a very useful history of the efforts by African governments and a consortium of donors to control and eventually eradicate the disease. —Foreign Affairs, 10 Dec. 2020

Some researchers have suggested that the parasitic worm that causes river blindness, might be linked to nodding syndrome as well---but what the parasite's role in the disease is, exactly, remains a mystery. —Valerie Ross, Discover Magazine, 28 Dec. 2011

The two met in the mid-1990s after Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, learned of John and Becky Moores’ efforts to assist victims of river blindness disease in tropical countries. —San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Mar. 2023

Recently, a study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene showed that a cheap deworming pill used against river blindness is temporarily effective for battling the spread of malaria, too. —Joseph Castro, Discover Magazine, 19 July 2011

Both Ōmura and Campbell discovered avermectins, a class of compounds that can kill parasitic roundworms that cause crippling diseases, such as lymphatic filariasis, otherwise known as elephantiasis, and onchocerciasis or river blindness. —Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 5 Oct. 2015

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Word History

First Known Use

1952, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

river blindness

noun

: a human disease of Africa and tropical America that is caused by a parasitic nematode worm passed on by the bite of a blackfly and that usually results in blindness if untreated

called also onchocerciasis

Medical Definition

river blindness

noun

riv·​er blindness ˈriv-ər- 

: onchocerciasis