Research Centre Produces Black Fly Repellent

Tamale, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana's Tamale Parasitic Diseases Research Centre has produced a repellent from plant extracts against the black fly, a causal agency of river blindness.

The herbal cream, which has been tested successfully on a number of people at Adayilli, an onchocerciasis endemic community in the Savelugu-Nanton District, is the result of collaboration between the centre's Gilbert Dery and some herbalists.

Dery, who declined to disclose the herbal components of the cream, told the Ghana news agency in Tamale Monday that it contains active ingredients that also kill the black fly.

Two farmers at Adayilli, Mahama Imoro, 25, and Abdul Samed, 35, who confirmed Dery's claim, said the cream offers the best relief since the Onchocerciasis Control Programme stopped the aerial spraying of the fly four years ago.

Samples of the cream have been supplied to a number of district assemblies in the region.