Authors

K Nkiru Anastasia¹;  ¹ Kingsley Ozumbadiwe University Ogboko Imo State, Nigeria

Discussion

The socio-economic impact of the onchocerciasis in Oguta local government Area, Imo State was carried out within three months from December2021 to march 2022. The impact of the disease was studied using questionnaire method, ten communities from the study area were selected using Simple Random Sampling (SRS) and ten questionnaires were evenly distributed by mecting the volunteers randomly among the selected communities which includes: Oguta, Agwa.

Orsu-Ohodo, Egwe, Egbuoma, Awa, Akabor, Mghelle, Ezi-Orsu, and Uzombe and comprise of both male and female gender. The result showed that 64% of the entire population under the study area knows about the disease and they comprises of mostly female (57%) with the highest age bracket of 14-15 (39%). The result shows that the entire population were mostly single (54%) with a higher percentage been self employed (40%) having a monthly earning above N20,000 (66%). Also. despite the greater percentage of singles in the population area, only 42% are the bread winners of their family. a greater number of the entire population under study do not often ger sick (41%) and higher percentage do get drugs from the pharmacy when they get sick (39%) and mostly spends above N1,000 at an average when taking care of themselves when they ger sick onchocerciasis (River blindness) has less socio-economic impact on the entire population of Oguta Local government because large number of the population are self employed and are mostly single. Although only 42% of the population under study are the bread winners of their family. The result also shows that high percentage of the population do not often get sick which also implies that the entire are rarely infected withonchocerciasis. However, onchocerciasis has limited socio-economic impact on Oguta Local government Area. Imo state.

Kerwords:

Ivermectin, Onchocerciasis, Endemic, Lymphatic Filariasis, NDTs. Socio-econome, Vector, Geographical.