African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC)

NEW DIRECTOR OF APOC

Dr Paul-Samson Lusamba-Dikassa has been appointed the new Director of APOC with effect from 1st April 2011. Dr Lusamba-Dikassa has been in the WHO for several years and was Director of Programme Management at the WHO Regional Office for Africa from April 2005.

He joined WHO/AFRO as an epidemiologist and a Public Health specialist in 1996. From 2000 to 2005, Dr Lusamba-Dikassa was the WHO Regional Adviser for Communicable Disease Surveillance and Epidemic Response and also served as the Chairman of the WHO Regional Board of Appeal from 2001 to 2003.

Prior to joining WHO, Dr Lusamba-Dikassa served in Public Health and in academia in his home country, the Democratic Republic of Congo for 20 years. He was a Professor of Public Health at the University of Kinshasa from 1989 to 1994 and became the Director of the School of Public Health and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the same University in 1995.

Dr Lusamba-Dikassa holds the degrees of Doctor of Medicine, Masters of Public Health, and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD in Epidemiology).

Community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI)

Community-directed Distributor (CDD)
Communities take charge of their own treatment in the community-directed treatment (CDTI) approach
WHO/APOC

The African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) was set up in 1995 to eliminate onchocerciasis as a disease of public health importance in Africa.
Onchocerciasis – or ‘river blindness’ – is a major cause of blindness and skin disease in many African countries.

At the core of APOC’s strategy to eliminate the disease is CDTI – community-directed treatment with ivermectin. CDTI relies on active community participation to distribute ivermectin treatment to people who need it. This successful strategy is now being extended to include delivery of other health interventions, such as insecticide-treated nets for malaria.


Highlights

Joint Action Forum (JAF) - Kuwait City, Kuwait, 12-14 Dec 2011

Click the links below to open/download JAF documents

APOC wins António Champalimaud Vision Award 2011

The magazine "15 years of APOC"

Dr Uche Amazigo, retired Director of APOC

Map of the estimated prevalence of eye worm history in Africa

FUTURE OF APOC AND ONCHOCERCIASIS CONTROL IN AFRICA

Yaoundé declaration

Yaoundé Declaration on Onchocercaisis Control in Africa

African ministers of health renew their commitment to eliminate onchocerciasis.

Contact us

Dr Paul-Samson Lusamba-Dikassa
Director, APOC
B.P. 549
Ouagadougou 01
Burkina Faso
Email: dirapoc@oncho. afro.who.int