Tag Archives: 2020

A Global Strategy to Eliminate Blinding Trachoma, A Disease Targeted by END7

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By: Elizabeth Kurylo, Communications manager, International Trachoma Initiative

Eliminating a disease is no small task. It helps to have a detailed plan. Partners working to eliminate blinding trachoma, one of the seven neglected tropical diseases targeted by , have such a plan. It’s called 2020 INSight: The End in Sight.

Produced by the International Coalition for Trachoma Control (ICTC), 2020 INSight is a global strategic plan with crucial next steps toward trachoma elimination by 2020.More than 2 million people are either blind or suffer excruciating pain because of trachoma. It makes one person experience severe sight loss every four minutes and blinds four people every hour.  Over 4.6 million are in the final, painful stages of this eye disease and require surgery to prevent them from going blind. It is endemic in at least 59 countries, in areas with limited access to water and sanitation.

A coordinated effort by governments, nongovernmental organizations, donors and other stakeholders is urgently needed to achieve the goal. Crucial next steps include the following:

  • Survey districts where trachoma is suspected to be endemic, so intervention can begin;
  • Dramatically improve access to clean water and latrines;
  • Increase global funding for trachoma control, including implementation of the SAFE strategy (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness, Environmental improvement);
  • Train teachers and other community leaders about facial cleanliness and better hygiene so they can spread the message in their communities;
  • Quickly address the backlog of 4.6 million people who need surgery to prevent blindness;
  • Identify support for more mass drug administration (MDA) programs to provide about 380 million more antibiotic treatments.

More than 80 percent of the burden of active trachoma is concentrated in 14 countries, where immediate action is needed. Eliminating the disease in Africa alone would boost the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) 20-30 percentage points based on conservative annual productivity loss estimates.

Since 1998, Pfizer Inc has donated more than 225 million doses of the antibiotic Zithromax® to treat and prevent blinding trachoma. The International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) manages the distribution of the medicine.

Get your copy of 2020 INSight at the ICTC website.

 

The Demise of Trachoma in Nigeria

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International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) estimates that 53 million people are living in trachoma-endemic areas of Nigeria.

“After receiving its first donation of Zithromax®, to be taken orally,  from Pfizer for trachoma control, Nigeria distributed 1,100,197 doses through mass drug administration (MDA) in ten districts in five states. ”

"The gray areas on the map show the districts within five trachoma-endemic Nigerian states where residents received Zithromax® to treat and prevent blinding trachoma."

Benjamin Nwobi, the National Coordinator for Nigeria’s National Program for the Prevention of Blindness, an initiative under the Federal Ministry of Health, stated that “the Northern geo-political zones of Nigeria fall within the WHO-classified ‘Trachoma Belt’ where trachoma contributes significantly to this avoidable blindness.”

Nwobi confirms that:

the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health plans to expand distribution to 22 districts in seven states in 2011 in collaboration with its in-country partners CBM (formerly Christoffel Blindenmission), The Carter Center, and Sightsavers. Under the leadership of the National Program, ITI hopes to gradually help scale-up the Zithromax® donation to all trachoma-endemic states of Nigeria that are prepared to implement the full SAFE strategy.

To combat trachoma, World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed an integrative strategy called SAFE.  All components of this strategy must be complete in order to successfully complete a trachoma control program.

Surgery for people at immediate risk of blindness
Antibiotic therapy to treat individual active cases
and reduce the community reservoir of infection
Facial cleanliness and improved hygiene to
reduce transmission
Environmental improvements to make living
conditions better so that the environment
no longer facilitates the maintenance and
transmission of trachoma

In 2010, Mass Drug Administration (MDA) of Zithromax® reached five Nigerian  trachoma-endemic states: “Nassarawa and Plateau in the central region, and Sokoto, Kebbi, and Zamfara in northern Nigeria.”

Trachoma is the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness. It is a communicable infectious disease caused by chlamydia trachomatis bacterium.  Symptoms of infections are not immediately visible and people who are infected are not immediately blind.  It is often transmitted in childhood, and it is when one reaches adulthood do severe symptoms appear.  Trachoma tends to breed in areas with poor access to clean water and sanitation and Africa is reported to be the most affected continent though Latin America, Middle East, Asia and Western Pacific all have several reported endemic cases.  ITI, in collaboration with several other organizations, designed the Trachoma Atlas which maps out trachoma-endemic regions of the world.

Trachoma is a common neglected tropical disease (NTD) and thankfully, collaborative efforts, like those demonstrated by ITI, have been working hard to give this preventable disease a resounding voice.

Read the original article here.

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