2) A Guatemala-Japan Collaboration Project for Onchocerciasis Research Supported by JICA, Japan

On July 21 of 1975, an agreement was signed to start a collaboration project for the research of onchocerciasis. For this project, Japan decided to send researchers to Guatemala to aid Guatemalan staff of technicians in a research to combat a disastrous filariasis. This disease was discovered in this country by Dr. Rodolfo Robles in the year 1915 and that is why it is known as Robles disease. This disease exists widely in Africa, but the Guatemalan disease was considered different from the African onchocerciasis. The disease is caused by the same parasite Onchocerca volvulus and transmitted by different species of blackflies of the genus Simulium. In America, onchocerciasis has later been found in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil without having satisfactory solution of control to date.