Eliminating River Blindness Shows the Power of Campaign SightFirst II
“Years ago, no one came here to give us medicine. It is too rural,” says Pitasia Gonzales, 78. Because no government agency, no NGO, traveled the steep, rutted roads to Pitasia’s village near the Mexican border with Guatemala, river blindness (onchocerciasis) was a constant threat. Pitasia knows this well. She is one of the few remaining people in Latin America to have lost their sight to that painful, parasitic disease which once blinded millions.