The concentration of microfilariae in the skin near the eye as a simple measure of the severity of onchocerciasis in a community and as an indicator of danger to the eye.

The parsitological and ophthalmological findings in an onchocerciasis survey in 8 villages (832 persons) and 5 primary schools (285 children) in Cameroon are reportedl The use of the coneoscleral punch/microtiter plate quantitative skin snip technique greatly facilitated this study, and its advantages over the weighed skin snip method are discussed. This simple technique could be used by paramedical personnel to detect the number of people in a community who have more than 15 microfilariae in a snip near the eye. This is shown to be a measure of the intensity of infection, and a good indicator of the number of people at risk of developing ocular pathology.