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A Clearer Future: Papua New Guinea Eradicated Trachoma

papua new guinea trachomaTrachoma is an infectious disease causing in-turning of the eyelids, visual impairment and often irreversible blindness. The disease is associated with crowded households and inadequate hygiene, access to water, and access to and use of sanitation, primarily affecting women and children within poor and rural regions. According to 2024 data, 103 million people worldwide live in trachoma endemic areas and are at risk of irreversible blindness. However, light is emerging from the dark. Following a 13-year-long struggle against the infectious disease, Papua New Guinea eradicated trachoma as a public health concern, as announced at the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva.

About Trachoma

Trachoma is one of many neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) ― complex conditions prevalent among impoverished tropical areas and often transmitted through vectors, making them major public health concerns. Almost absent from the global health agenda, NTDs do not get enough resources and attention, perpetuating cycles of poverty, stigma and social exclusion within neglected populations

Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide and is responsible for the visual impairment or blindness of more than 1.9 million people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis spreads through personal contact, such as sharing beds, clothing, and surfaces, and by flies that have come into contact with discharge from the eyes or nose of an infected individual. The average immune system can overcome a single episode of infection but in endemic communities, infection re-occurs frequently, often leading to years of constant infection. If untreated, the infection can cause the eyelid to turn inward, resulting in pain, light intolerance, and eventually irreversible visual impairment or blindness.

Trachoma’s impact is especially harsh in remote and impoverished areas where access to care is limited. Prevalence rates are especially high among pre-school-aged children (as high as 60-90%), and due to greater contact with infected children, women experience trachoma blindness four times as often as men, WHO reports. Blindness and visual impairment cause significantly reduced productivity, the economic cost of which is estimated to be $8 billion per year

Global Elimination Strategies

As of October 21st 2024, 21 countries worldwide have successfully eradicated trachoma as a public health problem, including Cambodia, Ghana and Pakistan. These previously endemic countries implemented the WHO-recommended SAFE strategy, which encompasses:

  1. Surgery to treat trachomatous trichiasis (the blinding stage of the disease)
  2. Antibiotics to clear the infection (specifically mass administration of azithromycin)
  3. Facial cleanliness
  4. Environmental improvement (especially enhancing access to sanitation and clean water)

Papua New Guinea Elimination Strategy

Foundational efforts to eliminate trachoma in Papua New Guinea began in 2012, with organizations including Collaborative Vision, The Brian Holden Vision Institute and The Global Trachoma Mapping Project contributing towards the effort. However, surveys in Papua New Guinea revealed that despite signs of active trachoma in children, there were very low levels of Chlamydia trachomatis and negligible levels of trachomatous trichiasis, suggesting that children were not progressing to severe stages of the disease.

As a result, Papua New Guinea’s National Department of Health organized a series of further assessments, surveys and investigations, building a comprehensive understanding of trachoma’s status in the country. This confirmed that community-wide interventions such as mass antibiotic distribution and large-scale surgery were not necessary. Unlike other countries where trachoma elimination required vast surgery campaigns, mass antibiotic administration and targeted improvements in access to water, hygiene and sanitation, Papua New Guinea’s success was fueled by vigorous disease surveillance.

This is a powerful testament to the country’s ability to adjust its health strategies to the realities of local communities, ensuring the safety of its population whilst reducing unnecessary resource use. Dr Ana Campa, Trachoma Coordinator of the Fred Hollows Foundation New Zealand, stated that “Trachoma in Papua New Guinea is complex and presents atypically. Additional research and ancillary surveys … [were] crucial in understanding the picture of trachoma in the country and ultimately moving the country into drafting its dossier.”

A Clearer Future

To date, 56 countries globally have eliminated at least one NTD, including 22 that have eliminated trachoma as a public health issue. Papua New Guinea eradicated trachoma not only as a medical milestone, but as a demonstration of how context-specific strategies can achieve lasting health improvements. With the list of countries eliminating NTDs rapidly growing, we are gaining considerable momentum towards a world where NTDs are no longer a significant threat to vulnerable populations.

WHO and its partners remain dedicated to helping countries like Papua New Guinea protect their progress against trachoma and move closer to eradicating more NTDs, protecting the world’s poor.

While WHO’s SAFE strategy remains vital to tackling trachoma, Papua New Guinea’s success in eradicating the fatal disease provides a clear example of how innovative strategies rooted in distinct local realities can lead to sustainable health victories.

– Holly McArthur

Holly is based in Somerset, UK and focuses on Good News and Global Health for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr

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Sightsavers Reduce Trachoma in Kenya

Trachoma in KenyaTrachoma, one of the well-documented Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD), is the foremost infectious cause of blindness globally. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), trachoma represents a significant public health challenge in 42 countries, contributing to the blindness or visual impairment of approximately 1.9 million individuals. Its impact most profoundly affects the most rural areas of Africa, Central and South America, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. Africa bears the brunt of its effects, with more than 30% of the population in Kenya being affected with trachoma.

Sightsavers, an international organization, is dedicated to preventing and treating blindness caused by NTD. Originating in the ’50s, it initially focused on leading countries like Kenya. The organization promotes disability rights and provides medical treatments to help eliminate trachoma in Kenya.

Sightsavers’ Efforts to Combat Trachoma in Kenya

Sightsavers dedicates itself to “avoiding blindness and advocating for the rights of individuals with disabilities.” The organization actively pursues several key goals:

  1. Protecting Sight: Sightsavers works to prevent blindness in the most impoverished communities globally.
  2. Combatting Tropical Diseases: One of Sightsavers’ primary focuses is fighting tropical diseases like trachoma in regions such as Kenya.
  3. Disability Rights: Sightsavers strives to ensure equal opportunities for all, advocating for fair access to education and employment facilities.

Kenya stands as one of the countries most affected by trachoma. However, the nation’s health care system faces significant challenges due to underfunding and lacking essential resources for avoiding vision loss. Consequently, many individuals in Kenya’s poorest communities struggle to access vital medications necessary for preventing trachoma.

In response, Sightsavers focuses on providing targeted support through various initiatives. This initiative includes offering “Free Eye Screening” services and ensuring regular check-ups for trachoma to detect and address vision issues early. The organization also emphasizes training local staff, equipping doctors and surgeons with the necessary skills to enhance Kenya’s health care system and improve patient care quality.

Additionally, Sightsavers researches to gather data on the causes and prevalence of visual impairment due to trachoma in Kenya. The organization reaches out to remote communities through rural outreach programs to conduct screenings for signs of trachoma. Moreover, Sightsavers implements hygiene programs to educate schools on the significance of good hygiene practices. They are helping to combat infectious diseases. Finally, the group prioritizes inclusive education efforts, working to reduce gender inequality barriers that prevent women and girls from accessing essential eye care support.

Lanoi’s Journey: A Tale of Resilience and Hope

In 2024, Sightsavers captured the narrative of Lanoi, a 4-year-old afflicted with trachoma in Kenya. The nonprofit organization’s community health volunteer, Joel, embarked on a journey to remote villages where he encountered Lanoi, grappling with trachoma. Utilizing dose poles facilitated by SightSavers, Joel swiftly determined the appropriate medication dosage and administered antibiotics to Lanoi.

Dose poles are crucial in assessing a patient’s height and facilitating accurate medicine dosage. The distribution of more than one billion NTD treatments through pole calculations highlights the significance of Sightsavers. Following treatment, Lanoi experienced a swift recovery within days. Following her recovery, Lanoi’s uncle committed to advancing Sightsavers’ mission and combatting trachoma in Kenya. He focused on educating others about crucial prevention strategies to reduce the prevalence of the disease.

SAFE Strategy in Kenya

SightSavers employs the SAFE strategy (Surgery, Antibiotics, Face-washing and Environmental improvements) to combat trachoma in Kenya. This comprehensive approach involves surgical interventions to alleviate the condition where necessary. The group distributes antibiotics through mass drug administration programs, repeated annually for five years, to ensure the effectiveness of treatment.

Additionally, the organization prioritizes facial cleanliness, conducting local workshops to educate individuals on the importance of personal hygiene. Environmental improvements are also emphasized, with efforts concentrated on enhancing access to clean water and minimizing the risk of reinfection by eliminating breeding grounds for flies carrying the disease in Kenya.

Fighting Stigma Toward Gender

Sightsavers emphasizes the importance of addressing gender inequality in trachoma treatment efforts in Kenya. Children are particularly vulnerable to trachoma. Mothers, often primary caregivers, face heightened exposure. Recognizing this, Sightsavers views female volunteers as crucial in reaching women lacking treatment due to cultural or religious norms.

– Kasia Flisiuk
Photo: Flickr

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Health in the Pacific Islands: Vanuatu Eliminates Trachoma

Health in the Pacific IslandsHealth in the Pacific Islands recently improved due to the elimination of a disease called trachoma on the island of Vanuatu. This island is located to the north east of Australia in a region called Melanesia. Vanuatu is the first of the Pacific Island countries to eliminate the disease, and the only one of 14 to complete this goal. Health in the Pacific Islands and around the world has improved significantly over time as public health measures reduced the number of people at risk of contracting trachoma by 92% over the past two decades.

Vanuatu

Vanuatu is composed of 83 islands and relies on agriculture. Due to the separation of islands, health in the Pacific Islands, including Vanuatu, is often inadequate. Access to health care remains a challenge to many residents, and there also exists a lack of resources and medical personnel. Though there are six hospitals located throughout the country, many people must rely on health centers due to the rural areas in which they live. The recent success story of the elimination of trachoma follows another success back in 2016 when the country eliminated lymphatic filariasis, a disease that affects the lymphatic system.

Trachoma

The bacterium, Chlamydia trachomatis, causes trachoma, which leads to a visual impairment that is, at times, severe enough to cause the patient to become blind. The bacterium has caused visual impairments in about 1.9 million people in the world so far, and 136 million people remain at risk of contracting the disease as of June 2021. The disease spreads through contact with discharge coming from the eyes or nose, whether through direct contact or intermediates such as flies. Trachoma is classified as a neglected tropical disease (NTDs).

People often find these diseases in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Though there are many NTDs, trachoma is one of the known diseases in this category that can be eliminated from a population through the use of public health measures. Improvements to hygiene and access to clean water help control the spread of the disease, as well as control the spread of possible vectors such as flies. The push to eliminate trachoma began after data from 2014 indicated that trachoma infected 12% of children between the ages of one and nine years old. This means these children were at risk for serious visual impairment that would affect their future. Trachoma also holds a significant economic impact on countries that trachoma impacts, where these countries may lose up to $5.3 billion per year.

A Path Toward Elimination

Other countries can follow the success of Vanuatu by abiding by the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and mobilizing medical professionals and communities in places of at-risk individuals. The acronym for the policy toward eliminating trachoma is SAFE. It stands for “Surgery for trichiasis; Antibiotics to clear infection; and Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement to limit transmission.” Communities pair this process with education on avoiding health risks, proper treatment and providing antibiotics to populations, especially rural individuals. Governments, such as the case in Vanuatu, also often partner with international organizations such as WHO, and with organizations that specifically work with treating diseases related to blindness such as the Fred Hollows Foundation.

The Fred Hollows Foundation is particularly important to the regions in and around Australia because it focuses on diseases related to sight. It helps to reduce poverty by providing medical treatments, education and training. It builds health facilities and works with local communities to end preventable blindness.

Looking Ahead

These ongoing partnerships and procedures that WHO outlines eliminate NTDs such as trachoma, allowing medical professionals to greatly improve health in the Pacific Islands. In 1998, WHO set a goal to eliminate trachoma by the year 2020. As of 2020, the new goal for the NTD elimination plan is now 2030. Trachoma remains a health problem in 43 countries. Hopefully, other countries in the Pacific Islands and around the world can use Vanuatu as a role model in eliminating more NTDs to improve health in the Pacific Islands and abroad.

– Kaylee Messick

Photo: Flickr

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Eliminating Trachoma in Developing Countries

Trachoma in developing countriesTrachoma, an unsung yet highly infectious disease, is listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the leading cause of blindness across the world. Data from March 2020 indicates that 137 million people live in areas that put them at risk of trachoma. It is estimated that several million people suffer from the disease worldwide, across 44 different countries. The disease is easily transmitted between two people and its effects can be devastating. The WHO has prioritized the elimination of trachoma in developing countries, where trachoma is common.

Trachoma and its Effects

The WHO reports that “transmission occurs through contact with infective discharges from the eyes and nose, particularly in young children, who harbor the main reservoir of infection. It is also spread by flies which have been in contact with the eyes and noses of infected people.” If left untreated, it can cause irreversible blindness. Trachoma also deeply affects the quality of life of families and entire communities where it is present as people with trachoma are often prevented from working and providing for their families. Additionally, women get trachoma at much higher rates than men because they are much more exposed to potentially infected children.

Trachoma Elimination Progress

Over the past two decades, significant work has been done in countries where trachoma is endemic, in order to eradicate the disease once and for all. This work has been extremely effective. Since 2002, those at risk of trachoma in developing countries and across the world have dropped 91%. Although that equates to 142 million people, the number is down from 1.5 billion people in 2002, which is progress on an incredible scale. Anthony Solomon, a medical officer in charge of WHO’s global trachoma elimination program, states that “We should be able to relegate trachoma to the history books in the next few years but we will only do so by redoubling our efforts now. The last few countries are likely to be the hardest. This is great progress but we cannot afford to become complacent.”

The Carter Center

In addition to the WHO, a number of different NGOs have been working to lower rates of trachoma, in developing countries especially. The Carter Center, founded by former U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, is an organization with a huge scope. Causes that the organization supports include peacebuilding, healthcare and human rights across the globe. The Carter Center’s commitment to ending trachoma is integral as it has provided resources such as eyelid surgery and other medical services for trachoma and is working to improve the environmental conditions of trachoma endemic countries. The Center states that “Over the course of 20 years (1999 to 2019), the Center has assisted national programs in providing 846,219  trachomatous trichiasis surgeries in Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, South Sudan and Sudan.” Although Trachoma can be potentially life-changing if left untreated, there are definite medical steps that can be taken before it reaches that point. The Carter Center and other organizations like it are providing crucial resources in order to save lives and eliminate trachoma in developing countries.

Trachoma’s Link to Poverty

Ultimately, eliminating trachoma in developing countries not only means improving the physical health of those who are currently at risk but it would greatly lower poverty rates in those same countries as well. Trachoma hurts the local economy, which in turn has a global impact. Providing the necessary healthcare and aid to those struggling with trachoma will in turn boost the quality of life in dozens of countries, therefore improving the global economy and allowing trade to flourish worldwide. The WHO Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma by 2020 (GET2020 Alliance) set a target to eliminate trachoma entirely by 2020. While that goal may have been missed, significant progress has been made and blindness rates are likely to continue falling rapidly in the coming years.

– Leo Posel
Photo: Flickr

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Trachoma Treatment Reaches 85 Million

Trachoma Treatment A new initiative by the World Health Organization (WHO) has allowed access to antibiotics for those impacted by world’s leading cause of infectious blindness.

Almost eight million people are visually impaired due to trachoma in some of the world’s most marginalized countries. Five hundred million people are currently at risk of blindness in 57 endemic countries without proper trachoma treatment. The WHO estimates that approximately six million people have been blinded by trachoma.

Trachoma is the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness. It germinates in areas with a lack of adequate access to water and sanitation. Trachoma is caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, is highly contagious and is easily spread through the eye, eyelid, nose or throat secretions of an infected person.

A total of 85 million people were given antibiotic trachoma treatment, an increase of 63 percent in people treated with antibiotics between 2014 and 2016. Patients were treated with the antibiotic azithromycin, a medication used specifically to fight different types of bacterial infection.

“The availability of free and quality-assured azithromycin enables us to support countries in their efforts to save the sight of millions of vulnerable people,” Minghul Ren, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, said.

Pfizer, an American-based organization that develops, manufactures and markets prescription medication, donates the antibiotic through the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI). Working with the WHO and other partners, ITI manages distribution alongside other assistance for trachoma treatment.

In addition to an increase of antibiotic trachoma treatment, the period between 2014 and 2016 showed an 87 percent rise in the number of people receiving operations for advanced trachoma to ensure no further eyesight loss.

Kirk Engels, Director of the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, said that he found the number of people who were receiving trachoma treatment—both surgically and through antibiotics—is “tremendously encouraging.”

“We encourage countries to prioritize interventions and make the much-needed additional investment to achieve the elimination of blindness due to trachoma,” Engels said.

The WHO hopes to eliminate trachoma by 2020 using a pioneering public-health strategy known as SAFE. The acronym stands for:

  • Surgery to correct trichiasis, the blinding stage of the disease
  • Antibiotics to treat active symptoms of trachoma
  • Facial cleanliness and good hygiene practices
  • Environmental improvements through water sanitation in both the community and household to reduce disease transmission.

The implementation of the SAFE program increases the effectiveness of trachoma treatment. Good hygiene practices and environmental improvements are crucial to ensuring the elimination of the disease in affected areas. With this additional aid from Pfizer and ITI, the WHO should have cause for hope.

– Drew Hazzard

Photo: Flickr

Mozambique Sees Success in Fighting Trachoma

Fighting TrachomaFighting trachoma can be a dicy and delicate task. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the trachoma epidemic is sweeping 51 countries and impacting the vision of about 2.2 million people globally.

Trachoma is an infection of the eyes that originates from the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. The infection is most prevalent in low-income, rural areas of Africa, Asia, Central America and South America where people often lack adequate sanitation facilities and clean water.

Fighting trachoma matters in the fight against global poverty for a variety of reasons. Children suffering from the disease are often unable to continue studying or working due to the symptoms of the illness, which include intolerable pain and constant itching. Older family members experiencing the same symptoms may struggle to support and care for their families and be unable to continue in their lines of work. Eventually, if left untreated, the infection will cause permanent blindness which significantly impacts the livelihoods of its victims.

While trachoma is easily spread, it is both preventable and treatable. The case of ENVISION in Mozambique demonstrates the potential impact prevention and treatment measures can have in the spread of this disease.

The WHO recommends the combination of preventative measures and treatment through the SAFE strategy (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial-cleanliness and Environmental improvement). Mozambique’s government, with the help of USAID’s Neglected Tropical Diseases Program, launched ENVISION in 2012 and aims to end trachoma in Mozambique by 2020. While this timeline may seem ambitious, there have already been significant signs of improvement in Mozambique.

According to USAID, in 2013, ENVISION distributed and successfully administered the antibiotic Zithromax in the 10 districts of Niassa, the most remote province of Mozambique. Since then, rates of trachoma in Niassa have dropped to below five percent. This is low enough to end the mass drug administrations in the area.

ENVISION leaders are also collaborating with NGOs working in the areas of sanitation, water and hygiene to aid in establishing preventative measures. While trachoma has yet to be completely eradicated, the leaders behind the ENVISION initiative have made great progress in fighting trachoma in just five years.

– Jordan Rose Little
Photo: Flickr

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Pfizer Announces 500 Millionth Trachoma Treatment

Trachoma_TreatmentAccording to the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI), trachoma remains the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness. Pfizer Inc., along with several partners has been working to provide critical trachoma treatment, particularly for patients in developing countries.

What is Trachoma?

Trachoma is an infectious disease caused by bacteria. It is spread through contact with eye discharge from an infected person – via hands, towels, sheets and in some cases, eye-seeking flies. The infection thrives in areas with poor sanitation and limited access to water for personal hygiene.

Without treatment, trachoma develops into a condition called trichiasis. Trichiasis causes the upper eyelids to turn inwards and scrape the eyeball, a painful condition that eventually leads to blindness.

In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 232 million people were at risk of developing trachoma. Studies indicate that trachoma is endemic in 51 countries with more than 80 percent of sufferers concentrated in 14 countries.

To help combat the spread of trachoma, Pfizer along with ITI and the International Coalition for Trachoma Control announced the corporation’s 500 millionth donation of the tablet Zithromax, a trachoma treatment antibiotic used in countries across Africa and Asia.

The partners are working together as part of an Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma by 2020 (GET 2020) led by the WHO. The Alliance is an expansive collaboration of more than 100 governments, non-governmental organizations and private sector partners.

The SAFE Strategy

Together the group has implemented a WHO recommended strategy called SAFE:

Surgery to treat the blinding stage of the disease

Antibiotics to treat infection

Facial cleanliness to help reduce transmission, and

Environmental improvement including access to water and sanitation.

 

ITI pointed out trachoma was once endemic in Europe and the United States. Before the use of antibiotics, trachoma disappeared due to improved living standards.

Today, antibiotic treatment provides a short-term cure, especially when the whole community is treated. However, reinfection can occur, typically within six months if hygiene and the environment don’t improve. For this reason, it is essential that the full SAFE strategy is in place in trachoma-endemic communities.

Paul Emerson, the Director for ITI said, “Trachoma traditionally affects the people at the end of the road, they’re the forgotten people, they are people with a very little political voice. Because trachoma is a hidden disease it is very difficult for people to care. Well, we do care. And we want to reach all of those people.”

– Kara Buckley

Sources: Carter Center, Sight Savers, Trachoma Coalition, Trachoma.org
Photo: Google Images

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Trachoma in Ethiopia: What It Is and What Is Being Done

Trachoma_in_Ethiopia
Trachoma is an endemic disease in Oromia, the largest and most populous state of Ethiopia. The disease has caused an impairment of vision in 2.2 million people in the world as the leading infectious cause of blindness.

The combination of poor sanitation and minimal access to clean water increases the risk of infection and nearly 229 million people in the world live in high-risk areas. Women are more susceptible to infectious trachoma than men because of their higher exposure to young children who are typically the bearers of the disease.

Eighty percent of Ethiopians live in rural areas with poor sanitation and little access to clean water. Seventy-six million people in Ethiopia are at risk of contracting blinding trachoma and another 800,000 people are at risk of irreversible blindness if they do not receive surgery.

Ethiopia only has 120 ophthalmologists and the majority of them work in Addis Ababa. The country is ill-equipped to destroy the disease on its own although the surgical procedures are simple and quick.

The Fred Hollows Foundation is a non-governmental organization focused on eliminating preventable blindness. The organization’s work in Ethiopia is focused mainly on the implementation of the SAFE strategy recommended by the World Health Organization in Oromia’s 225 endemic districts.

SAFE is an acronym for Surgery, Antibiotics, Face-washing, and Environmental improvements. Changing the way people manage personal hygiene has been one of the ways they are trying to reduce the risks of trachoma.

The Fred Hollows Foundation and its partners treated 5,637,226 people with antibiotics and performed more than 7,000 lid surgeries in 2014 alone. They also trained 36 surgeons and 10 clinic support staff as well as supplied $126,747 worth of equipment used to treat trachoma in Ethiopia.

According to the Fred Hollows Foundation website, “What is needed [to eliminate trachoma in Ethiopia] is a significant scale-up of the SAFE strategy, including resources, expertise and commitment from regional and local governments and development organizations in the water, sanitation and hygiene sectors.”

– Iona Brannon

Sources: Al Jazeera, The Fred Hollows Foundation, World Health Organization
Photo: Flickr

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Global Trachoma Mapping Project

Global Trachoma Mapping Project
“The Global Trachoma Mapping Project is the largest infectious disease survey in history with the aim of eliminating the disease by 2020,” says BBC.

This initiative is led by Sightsavers and has been active in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. It aims to uncover where Trachoma is most active so treatment can be focused there, eventually eliminating the disease by 2020 and meeting the World Health Organization’s goal to eliminate Trachoma.

Trachoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness in the world. Though it can be prevented through antibiotics, surgery, face washing, and a sanitary environment, today 39 million people suffer from blindness. 80 percent of these cases could be prevented or cured and 90 percent of these cases reside in the poorest region in the world.

In the early 1900s, Trachoma was endemic in the United States and Europe. Immigrants to the United States were thoroughly screened for Trachoma infection when the arrived at Ellis Island, and nine out of ten who were diagnosed were sent back to their original country. Trachoma has disappeared in Europe due to improved living standards, without the aid of antibiotics.

Today around 232 million people live in trachoma-endemic regions and are in desperate need of treatment. TrachomaAtlas estimates that 7.2 million people live with advanced Trachoma— where the eyelashes turn inward and scrape the cornea, an extremely painful condition. These individuals will be blind or visually impaired if they do not receive a simple surgery— something that Sightsavers, with the help of the Global Trachoma Mapping Project, aims to provide.

Trachoma is not a widely known disease— it is rampant in isolated, rural regions where people have very little to no access to healthcare and water. The Trachoma Coalition says that “In some communities, the disease is so common that blindness from Trachoma is simply accepted as a fact of life.”

Trachoma is known as a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD). These diseases are referred to as ‘neglected’ because they impact the poorest regions in the world as well as the world’s most vulnerable— remote rural areas, urban slums and conflict zones, according to SightSaver’s website.

Data from the Global Trachoma Mapping project has starkly illuminated that NTDS are just as impactful in terms of sickness, disability and death as more well-known diseases (HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria). The need for information on where these diseases are most prevalent is dire.

The Global Trachoma Mapping project aims to also combine technology with medical research. Data is uploaded through smartphones onto a virtual Trachoma Atlas. Then, the data is instantly available for governments, NGOs, and other aid agencies to target treatment where it is most urgent.

The initiative began in 2012 and is funded by the United Kingdom, which has provided over ten million pounds towards the effort.

In 2014, Sightsavers implemented over 13.8 million eye examinations, over 296,000 operations to restore sight or prevent blindness, and helped over 9,000 children with disabilities attend school. The Global Trachoma Mapping Initiative hopes to increase these numbers by finding where the most vulnerable are and helping them.

Seven countries where Trachoma used to be endemic (Gambia, Ghana, Iran, Morocco, Myanmar, Oman and Vietnam) have claimed to have been in some stage of eradicating Trachoma as a public health endemic.

– Aaron Andree

Sources: BBC, Trachoma Atlas, Trachoma Coalition, Sight Savers

Tropical Diseases are Killing Millions


Neglected tropical diseases are diseases that are either bacterial or parasitic and infect around one in six people around the world. Over half of a billion children are infected with these diseases.

These diseases are considered “neglected” because they do not receive very much attention or funding from governments or medical communities around the world.

These diseases tend to be especially widespread in areas with high levels of poverty, bad sanitation and poor access to health care. These diseases tend to especially affect women and children.

While they are grouped together, neglected tropical diseases can be very different from one another. Some kill quickly while others will infect for years or simply harm, but not kill, their victims. Some are parasitic, caused by parasites, and spread through mosquitoes, snails or flies. Others are bacterial and are spread through water or soil.

Treatments for these diseases also vary. Some have cheap treatments available (although this could potentially lead to drug resistance), others have no treatment or a very expensive or difficult treatment.

According to the World Health Organization there are 17 neglected tropical diseases. Here is a brief description of the seven most common neglected tropical diseases. These seven diseases account for 90 percent of global cases of neglected tropical diseases.

1. Ascariasis (roundworm) is the infection of the small intestine that is caused by a roundworm. The eggs of the roundworm are often ingested and the eggs then hatch in the person’s intestine. They then reach the lungs through the bloodstream. The worms can grow to be longer than 30 centimeters. Roundworm causes about 60,000 deaths each year.

2. Trichuriasis (whipworm) is spread and moves through the body like roundworm. Around the world about 700 million people are infected with whipworm.

3. Schistosomiasis (snail fever) is caused by parasitic worms. A person can become infected by coming in direct contact with contaminated fresh water. Over 200 million are infected with snail fever around the world.

4. Lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) is transmitted through mosquitoes and damages the lymphatic system causing painful, visible disfigurations. More than 120 million are infected around the world.

5. Trachoma is an infection of bacteria in the eye, causing the yield to turn inwards, eventually resulting in blindness. Six million people are blind due to trachoma.

6. Onchocerciasis (river blindness) is a parasitic disease caused by flies that carry larval worms that grow to cause blindness, lesions and loss of pigmentation in the skin.

7. Hookworm is spread and moves through the body like whipworm and roundworm. Around 600 million people throughout the world are infected with hookworm.

Although neglected tropical diseases affect millions, they are relatively inexpensive to treat: for around 50 cents a year, one person could be treated and protected for all of the seven most common neglected diseases.

– Lily Tyson

Sources: Reuters, Global Network, CDC, WHO
Photo: EndTheNeglect