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River blindness
As its name suggests, river blindness affects people living by fast flowing rivers. Its official name is onchocerciasis; river blindness is actually a phrase coined by our founder the late Sir John Wilson when he travelled to West Africa in the 1950s.
According to the World Health Organization over 100 million more people (in the 19 African countries where the disease is endemic) are at high risk of infection. The vast majority of the 37 million people already infected with river blindness live in West, central and east Africa. Of these, 300,000 are already blind.
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