While much has been achieved in the treatment and progress toward elimination of onchocerciasis, a number of additional challenges remain that Merck and our partners are actively addressing including:

• There is a need to strengthen national capacity in all endemic countries to allow for integration of Community Directed Treatment with Ivermectin (CDTI) into a country's health care system, and co-implementation of other health interventions. Increasing competition between health programs for limited resources creates further pressure for this.
• There is a need to strengthen record keeping among community-directed distributors within the CDTI programs.
• In November 2007 – on the occasion of the program's 20th anniversary — Merck re-affirmed our pledge to donate as much MECTIZAN as necessary for the elimination of river blindness globally. With this renewed pledge, Merck's donation of MECTIZAN for river blindness is estimated to reach 100 million treatments annually by 2010.
• By 2012, transmission of river blindness in the Americas is expected to be halted, allowing treatment with MECTIZAN to be stopped in the Western Hemisphere.
• By 2015, program partners plan to achieve 100 percent geographic coverage of treatment with MECTIZAN in all river blindness-affected areas. 
• We expect elimination of lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem by the year 2020.
• The MECTIZAN Donation Program is a key component of the growing trend towards integrated programs to address Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs.) In fact, the integration of onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis efforts via the MECTIZAN Donation Program starting in 1998 set the foundation for many of these efforts, and Merck will remain engaged with key stakeholders to enable integrated efforts wherever feasible. 

The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.

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