ELIMINATION OF BLINDING TRACHOMA BY 2020

Wednesday, 16th of May 2012

ELIMINATION OF BLINDING TRACHOMA BY 2020

Full text is at http://www.who.int/wer/2012/wer8717.pdf

Discussion

Trachoma is an ancient disease that has been recorded to affect humankind in the earliest medical records. The WHA resolution in 19982 to eliminate it as a public health problem by 2020 was an ambitious step and considerable progress has been made (Figure 2). In 2010,

36 countries reported implementation of SAFE (up from 0 in 1997), 7 reported achievement of the UIGs and the number of countries that have carried out epidemiological assessments is steadily increasing. Global assessments of the disease are subject to denominator bias from several highly populous countries for which complete data are unavailable (China, India, Brazil and Nigeria). These and other countries will need to join the global effort to ensure that the ultimate goals are reached.

To date >900 000 trichiasis surgical treatments have been carried out and 250 million people treated with antibiotics (Figure 3). However, despite this real progress, there is the need to scale up implementation of the SAFE strategy in endemic areas.

Scale-up may be greatly helped by the use of the integrated neglected tropical diseases platform. Among the components of the strategy, the provision of surgery is clearly the one that needs urgent attention. There are a number of countries with comprehensive plans to

achieve elimination and which are on track to reach the UIGs before 2020 and others where, with intensified efforts, the UIGs could be reached in a considerably reduced number of years.

There is urgent need to provide an increase in the delivery of surgical services to people with trichiasis, the blinding stage of the disease: the number of surgical procedures per year reported to the Alliance is not increasing in line with the identified need. This is the most formidable challenge for trachoma control, since it requires effective cooperation and integration across health systems.

Implementation of the activities to reach Millennium Development Goal 7 to ensure environmental sustainability should also foster the behavioural changes necessary to ensure that the elimination of blindness from trachoma is achieved.

Only 8 years remain before the global goal of trachoma elimination by 2020: member states are urged to make use of the tools, plans, drugs and international partners available to achieve this goal. Several large countries have committed to trachoma assessment and SAFE implementation and these actions will help to ensure that the global target is reached. The GET2020 Alliance will continue to advocate for such engagement and making the resources available to the countries and partners to be part of this achievement.