Trachoma

Trachoma, which is the most common infectious cause of blindness, is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis. Children which have the active stages of the disease are the reservoir of infection, while blindness, which occurs after repeated episodes of infection, principally affects adults. Boys and girls are equally affected by active infection, while blindness is more common in women. Trachoma is a condition of poverty and is a focal disease, affecting communities that have poor water supplies and sanitation and poor health services. The organism is transmitted from person to person through direct and indirect contact and by flies. Blindness can be prevented by surgery to correct inturning of the upper eyelid(trichiasis),while the infection and its transmission can be reduced with surgery, antibiotics, facial cleanliness and environmental improvement (the SAFE strategy).

Current situation
Trachoma is endemic in 55 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Australia, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea,Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania,Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The estimated number of affected people has dropped from 360 million in 1985 to about 80 million today. Trachoma affects the poorest and most remote rural areas of Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Australia and the Middle East (30). Updated reports on 36 countries are available (31), while 19 endemic countries have not yet reported data.

There are approximately 10.6 million people with inturned eyelashes (entropion trichiasis), for which eyelid surgery is needed to prevent blindness. The majority of these people are women. An estimated 8 million adults are irreversibly visually impaired from corneal scarring due to trachoma.