Review of vector control prior to the OCP

It is a little over 60 years since Blacklock, in an elegant study, demonstrated that in Sierra Leone human onchocerciasis was transmitted by a Simulium fly. Amazingly within 6 years of Blacklock's discovery an attempt was made, mainly using environmental management, to control Simulium in the Chiapas focus of Mexico, though this was not successful. Later Buckley was successful in eradicating Simulium neavei from the small Riana focus in Kenya by clearing riverine forest. However, it was not until DDT became widely available that Simulium control entered its heroic phase with campaigns in Kenya, Uganda and Zaire, some of which were highly successful. This led to an interest in controlling the vector in West Africa. The very different pattern of disease with very large foci virtually contiguous across tens of thousands of square kilometers suggested a difficult proposition and early attempts were not very successful. There is much of interest in the East and Central African schemes and in the West African forerunners of the OCP. In this talk an attempt will be made to capture something of the flavour of these pioneering efforts, to give credit to the men involved, and to highlight the successes against both the S. neavei and S. damnosum complex, and the advances which contributed to the successful planning of the OCP.