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Agonising eye disease may soon be consigned to history books

A trachoma patient recovers from surgery in Uganda - ©2018 Simon Townsley Ltd
A trachoma patient recovers from surgery in Uganda - ©2018 Simon Townsley Ltd

The number of people at risk of contracting an agonising eye disease has fallen dramatically, with experts hoping it could soon be eliminated.

According to new figures released by the World Health Organization the number of people at risk of blinding trachoma has fallen by 91 per cent in the last 17 years. Around 1.5billion people were at risk of catching the disease in 2002, compared to 142million today.

Trachoma is the world’s leading cause of infectious blindness. It starts as a bacterial infection and is spread from person to person and by flies.

If left untreated, repeated infections cause scarring on the eyelid which can turn a person’s eyelashes inwards. With every blink the eyelashes scrape against the ball of the eye, slowly and excruciatingly turning the sufferer blind.

The success in beating the disease is down to fighting it on two fronts. Firstly, its spread around the world was mapped and secondly an elimination strategy was implemented by a global collaboration between international organisations such as Sightsavers with communities, governments and donors.

The strategy focuses on ensuring that those who need surgery to stop the eyelashes turning inwards receive it; antibiotics are made available to those who need them; people are taught the importance of facial cleanliness; and improvements to water and sanitation are made.

Trachoma is endemic in 44 countries and since 2011 eight countries have eliminated the disease. Last year Ghana became the first sub Saharan African country to wipe it out.

The new statistics also show that the number of people requiring surgery for trachomatous trichiasis, the late, blinding stage of trachoma, has also dropped from 7.6 million in 2002 to 2.5 million in 2019 - a decline of 68 per cent.

In 2018 alone, 144,981 cases of blinding trachoma were operated on and more than 90 million people were treated with antibiotics - donated by pharmaceutical firm Pfizer until 2025 - in 745 districts worldwide.

In 1996 the WHO launched the alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma with the goal of eliminating the disease by 2020. That target will be missed but experts hope that recent gains in tackling the disease will mean that it will soon be consigned to history.

Dr Anthony Solomon, medical officer for neglected tropical diseases for the World Health Organization, said: “This is great progress, but we cannot afford to become complacent. 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.”

Simon Bush, Sightsavers’ director of neglected tropical diseases, welcomed the announcement.

He said: “This is an incredible drop in the number of people at risk of being blinded by this excruciating but preventable disease and signals a huge step forward towards its elimination as a public health problem everywhere.

“The final stages in consigning trachoma to history will not be easy but as has already been shown, amazing things can be achieved when communities, governments and organisations from all over the world come together.”

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security 

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