A rare case of ocular onchocerciasis in India.
Onchocerca volvulus is a spirurid nematode that mainly affects the rural poor of Sub-Saharan Africa, Yemen and parts of Central and South Africa. River blindness, caused by Onchocerca volvulus, is considered to be the second commonest infectious cause of blindness worldwide. We report a rare case of ocular onchocerciasis where a live adult worm was extracted from the eye of a patient from a nonendemic region. The worm was identified as Onchocerca volvulus based on morphological features. The patient was treated with Ivermectin (0.2 mg/kg). At six months follow-up she had complete remission of symptoms.
Department of Microbiology, Gauhati Medical College, Guwahati, Assam, India. purnima_barua@rediffmail.com
Purnima
P
Barua
Ajanta
A
Sharma
Naba Kumar
NK
Hazarika
Nitin
N
Barua
Saurabh
S
Bhuyan
Syed Tanwir
ST
Alam
D000328:Adult; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D015827:Onchocerciasis, Ocular / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*