Musculo-skeletal pain (MSP) in onchocerciasis: a potential in the rapid low cost epidemiological survey and in the assessment of impact of ivermectin treatment on a community.

The diagnostic potential of musculo-skeletal pain (MSP) in the rapid assessment of onchocerciasis of morbidity and of the impact of ivermectin treatment in a community is brought to picture. The clinical impression is that MSP is a common, early, chronic important symptom of onchocerciasis. With a significant association with onchocerciasis, MSP has the potential of being an important operational diagnostic clue in the detection of onchocerciasis. It has the advantage of being easily recognizable, and therefore can be applied by primary health care workers. MPS is proved to cause the greatest morbidity, particularly among working farmers in areas where the forest strain of O. volvulus is predominant. Thus, onchocerciasis is contributing more than was perhaps realized to the reduced output of work from farmers. However, MPS, a parasitic rheumatism, is proved to be eminently susceptible to treatment by DEC.