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The US-based International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) and Mali's Public Health Ministry have launched a six-week campaign to distribute antibiotics against trachoma, a bacterial infection of the upper eyelid that causes blindness, ITI's country representative, Christian Stengel told IRIN. He said over 75,000 women and 145,000 children were expected to receive Zithromax, an antibiotic which, he said, was effective against the disease.
The project started on Monday and targets 400 villages in the Koulikoro region, near Mali's capital Bamako. It will also educate the population through an information, education and communication programme. The distribution of Zithromax have begun in Kati and Kaganba, two districts where 4 percent of the women over the age of 15 show symptoms of the disease.
Men are not targeted by the health initiative because trachoma is virtually inexistent among men, Stengel added. Mali, Morocco and Tanzania have already launched similar initiatives. Sudan has been selected as the next pilot site. ITT, created in 1998, plans to eliminate the disease by the year 2020.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
