15 years of APOC—a lifetime of public health evidence

Abstract

The sculpture Sightless Among Miracles outside WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, celebrates the ongoing successes of onchocerciasis control in Africa. At the unveiling of the sculpture in 1999, the Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP), a joint effort of four UN agencies, had been running for 25 years. In that time, it covered 30 million people in 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily through a programme of regular larvicide spraying in an effort to control the Simulium vector of Onchocerca volvulus.