Filarial infection (Onchocerca volvulus) causing river blindness
To support a rating above 0%, your records need to show hospitalizations within the past 12 months that document abdominal distress, fever, and elevated white blood cells together. Admission and discharge records, emergency department notes, and inpatient treatment summaries are the most direct evidence of those hospitalizations.
For the 30% level, records should also document at least one of the following during those hospital stays: hemorrhage, obstruction, abscess, peritonitis, or perforation. Imaging reports, operative notes, pathology results, or physician notes that name any of those complications can help establish that criterion.
For a 0% rating, records showing that your condition is either asymptomatic or managed through diet changes and medication — without any hospitalizations — would reflect that level. Statements from you or people who know you describing how symptoms affect daily activities and work may help show whether the condition goes beyond what diet and medication can control.
Conditions that are often caused or made worse by this one. If you have any of these, they may be claimable as secondary service connection.
