Campaign launched to end trachoma blindness by 2010

The government of Mauritania, in collaboration with international donors, has launched a campaign to rid the desert country of trachoma, a contagious eye infection that eventually causes blindness. “Trachoma is endemic in Mauritania, but could be eliminated in 6-8 years,” explained Amos Abbenyi, Director of Planning at the International Trachoma Initiative in New York, which is working with the government to eradicate the disease. The campaign was launched in Atar, the capital of Adrar region in northern Mauritania near the border with the Western Sahara on Thursday. Overseeing the ceremony was Meimoune Ould Jiyid the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health. “Atar was chosen for the launch of the campaign because it represents a region with one of the highest prevalence rates of trachoma in Mauritania. The national average is around 16%, but in Atar some 38% of people are infected,” Abbenyi said. Trachoma causes the eyelids to turn inwards and the eyelashes to damage the cornea. Repeated infections lead to blindness, usually in early adulthood. Striking at the peak of an individual's normal period economic productivity, trachoma can place a tremendous strain on family resources. “It is a very painful disease,” explains Abbenyi. “You know how uncomfortable it is to have just one eyelash in your eye - imagine a whole eye full. Sufferers tend to start pulling out their eyelashes, but they only grow back tougher and cause even more damage.” Mauritania is the 10th country to join ITI, which aims to wipe out trachoma completely by 2020 through the adoption of the “SAFE” strategy, as launched by WHO in 2001. Safe stands for:

• Surgery for late-stage disease,
• Antibiotics for active infection,
• Face washing to prevent disease transmission, and
• Environmental change - including the provision of clean water and sanitation.

Notable success has already been achieved in several countries. In Africa, Morocco and Ghana are scheduled to beat the disease by 2005. Morocco, for example, has achieved a 90% reduction in the prevalence of active trachoma in children under 10 years old since 1997. Indeed it is children who are the principle carriers of the disease, which is transmitted by flies and ants and close bodily contact. The success of the anti-Trachoma campaign in Morocco has been partly attributed to the use of orally administered antibiotics. Previously an antibiotic ointment was administered, but this was messy and unpleasant to use. The pharmaceutical group Pfizer has pledged to support Mauritania’s campaign with a donation of up to 135 million doses of its oral antibiotic Zithromax over the next five years. Mauritania aims to treat 140,000 people with Zithromax this year and perform 600 operations to save the sight of trachoma sufferers. The country of nearly three million people has set an official target of wiping out trachoma by 2006. However, according to Abbenyi, the disease will never be beaten as long as people live in poverty without access to clean water. Trachoma is endemic in 55 of the world’s poorest countries, and can spread rapidly in densely populated areas where access to clean water is restricted. In Mauritania's desert capital Nouakchott, which is surrounded by sprawling shanty towns, clean water is always in short supply. The situation is no better in many towns in the interior. In some, the local wells have dried up completely and water has to be trucked in by tanker. Women are three times more likely to suffer blindness from trachoma than men since they traditionally spend more time with the children and through them are exposed to repeated infections of the disease.