ITI expands trachoma control programme

The International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) announced on Tuesday that it would expand its efforts to control trachoma to Ethiopia, Nepal and Niger in light of the quick success of its programme in Morocco. “These initiatives will go a long way towards eliminating blinding trachoma by 2020 in accordance with WHO guidelines,” ITI Executive Director Joseph Cook said in New York. Trachoma is the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness. While the disease was eliminated in the industrialised world early in the 20th Century as a result of economic development and improved hygiene, some six million people in developing countries are currently blind as a result of it. Trachoma-related blindness, which was a risk to 1.5 million people in Morocco just five years ago, will be completely eliminated in the country by 2005, ITI said. Since the ITI became active in Morocco in 1999, trachoma prevalence in the North African nation has decreased from 28 to 6.5 percent among people living in programme areas, reflecting a 75-percent reduction of overall prevalence. Successful trachoma elimination in Morocco is due largely to the introduction of a comprehensive public health strategy that emphasises the medical, behavioural and environmental changes necessary to eliminate the disease. A major part of the strategy has been the use of the antibiotic Zithromax, produced by drug giant Pfizer Inc, for the treatment of active trachoma infections. “One easily taken oral dose replaces six weeks of topical treatment,” Pfizer Chief Executive Hank McKinnell told reporters in New York. ITI Programme Director Jeffrey Mecaskey told IRIN that 80 percent of children in Ethiopia and about half of the children in Niger have active trachoma. He added that 80,000 children in Niger have trichiasis, which is the result of repeated trachoma infections. Trichiasis ultimately causes the eyelashes to turn inward and scratch the cornea. If not corrected it results in blindness. “We chose these countries for the next phase because they are among WHO’s priorities and because they have the managerial capacity, both in government and UN agencies and NGOs, to implement the programme,” Mecaskey said. The expansion of the programme to Ethiopia, Nepal and Niger brings to nine the number of countries where ITI-supported programmes are combating the disease. In addition to Morocco the other countries are Ghana, Mali, Sudan, Tanzania and Vietnam. The nine countries account for an estimated 20 percent of trachoma cases worldwide. “We hope to expand the programme to Senegal, The Gambia and Egypt later next year,” Mecaskey added.