CHEAP antibiotics could treat river blindness. The disease affects 18 million people, mostly in Africa, and is transmitted by blackflies infected with the parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus. The worms burrow into the skin, reproduce and release millions of tiny young. When the offspring die, they trigger a severe immune reaction that can cause loss of vision and skin itching so intense it drives some sufferers to suicide. A drug called ivermectin kills immature worms, but repeated doses are needed.
Now Eric Pearlman at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and his colleagues suggest that Wolbachia bacteria carried inside the…
