[Introduction of onchocerciasis in Central America: the role of the French expeditionary corps to Mexico (1861-1867)].

Close relationships between American and African strains (from savanna) of onchocerciasis have been confirmed by biochemical analysis. It is admitted that the parasite could have been introduced by slave trade. But in Mexico, Torroela supported the hypothesis that onchocerciasis was introduced by Nubian soldiers of the French troops between 1861 and 1867. Some of the 600 soldiers of the Egyptian bataillon, included in the French expeditionnary corps, could have been onchocerciasis carriers. But these troops caserned in Vera Cruz remained in the littoral plain and have not been in contact with the Oxoaca focus of onchocerciasis. It is very unlikely that they can have been at the origin of the disease focus.