In June 1988, a survey including 1,076 persons was carried out in the rural areas of the Littoral Province to study the distribution of eye diseases and from there determine the needs of the rural population with respect to eye care. The most frequent ophthalmological problems, apart from refraction errors, were found to be onchocerciasis and cataract. Our study shows that onchocerciasis found in the rainforest of Littoral province causes blindness as much as that found in the savannah: it was the principal cause of bilateral blindness (66.4%) in the study. Knowing that about 200,000 onchocerciasis patients with a considerable risk of becoming blind, live in the rural areas of Littoral, a programme of detection and treatment of this disease with Ivermectine was introduced since 1989.
