river blindness: Definition

river blindness: Definition and Much More from Answers.com: 사상충(filaria)증

"Human disease caused by a filarial worm(사상충) native to Africa but also found in parts of tropical America and transmitted by several blackflies. It is so called because the flies that transmit the disease breed on rivers and mostly affect riverine populations. Blindness is caused by dead microfilariae(microfilaria: 혈액 안에 기생하는 사상충filaria의 유충) — the larvae that can be produced for some 15~ 18 years by adult worms — inside the eye. River blindness is common in savannah areas of Africa and in Guatemala and Mexico. In 1987 the World Health Organization began to distribute the drug ivermectin (originally developed for use against livestock parasites), which eliminates the microfilariae, though it does not kill the adult parasite. ..."