BACKGROUND Antibiotics are an important part of WHO's strategy to eliminate trachoma as a blinding disease by 2020. At present, who needs to be treated is unclear. We aimed to establish the burden of ocular Chlamydia trachomatis in three trachoma-endemic communities in Tanzania and The Gambia with real-time quantitative PCR. METHODS Conjunctival swabs were obtained at examination from 3146 in...

Identification of risk factors is essential for planning and implementing effective trachoma control programmes. We aimed to investigate risk factors for active trachoma and trichiasis in Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. A survey was undertaken and eligible participants (children aged 1-9 years and adults aged 15 years and above) examined for trachoma. Risk factors were assessed through intervi...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Increased morbidity and mortality from a number of infectious diseases have been associated with vitamin A deficiency. Trachoma and vitamin A deficiency are both important causes of blindness in Nepal. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between the diagnosis of vitamin A deficiency by conjunctival impression cytology and the diagnosis of infectious tracho...

Purpose Clinical trachoma is the current measure of effectiveness of antibiotic and environmental improvements in trachoma endemic communities. Impact assessments measure only trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF). Trachomatous inflammation-intense (TI) is not used for decisions on stopping mass drug administration (MDA) or achieving intervention goals. We tested the supposition that TI was...

INTRODUCTION To prepare for global elimination of trachoma by 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends mapping of trachoma at district-level to enable planning of elimination activities in affected populations. The aim of our study was to provide data on trachoma for each local government area (LGA) of Kaduna State, Nigeria, as such data were previously unavailable. METHOD As part...

There has been considerable controversy about the most effective treatment for trachoma (2, 4, 7, 9). One reason for this is that the various trials have been conducted by using different treatment regimens on different populations in different cultural and socioeconomic situations. The social culture of outback Australian aborigines and the environment in which they live are quite unlike those...

Trachoma is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis. Clinical grading with the WHO simplified system can be highly repeatable provided graders are adequately trained and standardized. At the community level, rapid assessments are useful for confirming the absence of trachoma but do not determine the magnitude of the problem in communities where trachoma is present. New rapid assessment protocols incorp...

BACKGROUND Following an epidemiological study carried out in 2006 showing a high prevalence of blinding trachoma in the Far North Region of Cameroon, a trachoma elimination programme using the SAFE strategy was initiated: three yearly trachoma mass treatments were to be performed. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The entire district population (120,000 persons) was treated with azithromycin 1.5...

INTRODUCTION Trachoma is a public health problem in Ethiopia accounting for 35-50% of cases of blindness. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of trachoma and its determinant factors in Mojo and Lume districts. METHODS A cross sectional community-based survey was conducted. From the two districts, a total of 23 clusters were selected by a multistage cluster random sampling technique. ...

OBJECTIVES The objective was to determine the frequency of trachoma genotypes of Chlamydia trachomatis-positive urogenital tract (UGT) specimens from remote areas of the Australian Northern Territory (NT). SETTING The setting was analysis of remnants of C. trachomatis positive primarily UGT specimens obtained in the course of clinical practice. The specimens were obtained from two pathology s...