The World Health Organization has declared that India has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. Here’s everything you need to know about bacterial eye infection.
India has been congratulated for successfully eliminating trachoma, a leading cause of blindness, as a public health problem. India joins Nepal and Myanmar in the WHO South-East Asia Region and 19 other countries globally that have achieved this feat previously. “India’s elimination of trachoma as a public health problem is a testament to the country’s commitment to alleviating the suffering that millions of people have faced. of this debilitating disease,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “WHO has worked closely with India to achieve this achievement and we congratulate the government, health workers and partners who have collaborated to make it possible.”
What is trachoma?
Trachoma, a leading cause of infectious blindness, is a chlamydia infection that occurs due to poor hygiene and unclean water supplies and can be transmitted through contact with secretions from the eyes, nose or throat of a person who suffers from the disease or indirectly through flies.
Risk factors and causes of trachoma:
- Bad hygiene
- Overcrowded homes
- Inadequate access to water
- Poor sanitation
The WHO recommends a SAFE strategy to combat trachoma.
- Yessurgery to treat the stage of blindness (trachomatous trichiasis)-
- TOAntibiotics to eliminate the infection, particularly mass administration of the antibiotic azithromycin, which is donated by the manufacturer Pfizer to elimination programs through the International Trachoma Initiative.
- Ffacial cleansing
- myEnvironmental improvement, particularly improving access to water and sanitation.
