Abstract
An assessment of onchocercal skin disease (OSD) conducted in 38 rural communities in the Imo River Basin, Nigeria, between March 1999 and September 2000, showed that depigmentation (DPM) was the most prevalent lesion in persons with skin microfilariae (mf) (26.3%), followed by chronic papular onchodermatitis (CPOD) (18.1%) and acute papular onchodermatitis (APOD) (15.5%). There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in sex-related prevalence of OSD. While CPOD, lichenified onchodermatitis (LOD) and DPM were more prevalent in subjects over 30 years old, APOD was associated more with those aged less than 30 years. OSD occurred with concomitant itching in nearly 50% of subjects. The geometric mean intensity of infection was 13 mf/mg per skin snip.
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