Epidemio-Clinical Profile of Onchocerciasis in Sambwa in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

Introduction: Onchocerciasis is the second leading cause of infectious blindness. This condition is serious because of its ocular complications. The sickness is caused through a Nematode specifique of I man Ochocerca Volvulus the transmission se made through a vecteur the Simulie (Mouches blacks circulant autours of the waters at current fast). We have 5 Syndroms: Cutane, Nodulaire, Oculaire, Lymphatique and Neurologique. These complications eyes him at valu the name of cecite of riviere through OMS in 1972. Our objective was to determine the epidemiological profile of onchocerciasis in the Sambwa health area. Materials and method: We conducted a prospective cross-sectional descriptive study over a period of 5 months (01/01 to 01/05/2023). We included patients whose skin biopsy was positive for onchocerciasis, aged 10 to 90 years old and having lived more than 10 years in Sambwa. The significance threshold was 0.05%. Excel, Word and IBM SPSS 23 software were used for data entry and analysis. One hundred people were examined, 38 of whom were retained. Results: The frequency of onchocerciasis was 38%, men predominated (57.9%, sex ratio 1.4). The average age was 64.37±11.63 years. Farmers represented 68.4%. Most patients had a stay in Sambwa of 10 to 29 years (42.2%). Ocular syndromes represented 57.6% of cases, of which bilateral cataract (31.6%) predominated, there was an association between age and ocular syndromes (p=0.00011). Blindness represented 31.6% of cases in the right eye while in the left eye mild impairment represented 26.3% of cases. Tonometry between 15.9 and 20.6 mmHg was 81.6% on the right and 76.3% on the left. In most cases the fundus was inaccessible (26.3% on the right and 21.1% on the left). In 47.4% of cases there was a refractive error. Conclusion: Considering our results, onchocerciasis is a relatively common condition, the Sambwa health area is a Hypoendemic area.