Some 100,000 Malians have received Zithromax, an antibiotic against trachoma, Christian Stengel of the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) told IRIN on Wednesday.
Zithromax has been distributed mostly to children under the age of 16 years in 200 villages in the Koulikoro region, near Mali’s capital, Bamako.
The US-based ITI launched its six-week campaign on 15 January. It aims to distribute medication to 200,000 people in 400 villages.
ITI, created in 1998, has launched similar initiatives in Morocco and Tanzania. It plans to eliminate the disease by the year 2020.
Trachoma is a bacterial infection of the upper eyelid that causes blindness
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
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