Trachoma ‘eliminated’ in Tanzanian village

Screening for trachoma Copyright: Flickr/STAR Study Team

By: Henry Neondo and Christina Scott

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Trachoma ‘eliminated’ in Tanzanian village</h1>
<h4>By: Henry Neondo and Christina Scott</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><span>The eye infection trachoma — the world’s leading preventable cause of blindness — can be successfully eliminated with just two doses of antibiotic, scientists report. </span></p>
<p><span>Researchers used two doses of the standard antibiotic azithromycin, spaced two years apart, to eliminate trachoma in the community of Kahe Mpya, Tanzania.</span></p>
<p><span>They reported their results in the <em>New England Journal of Medicine</em> last week (April 24). </span></p>
<p><span>The success suggests an alternative to the WHO’s current recommendations of annual doses of the antibiotic azithromycin over three years in at-risk communities.</span></p>
<p><span>Trachoma is caused by <em>Chlamydia trachomatis</em> infection. Repeated infections can cause scarring on the eyelid, resulting in it turning inside out and causing the eyelashes to scratch the cornea.</span></p>
<p><span>People in Kahe Mpya village were administered with azithromycin, and samples from their eyes monitored for the presence of trachoma infection. After the first treatment, infection fell from 9.5 per cent to 0.1 per cent. Three years after the second treatment, no infection was found in samples.</span></p>
<p><span>The Tanzanian research offers a solution to help nomadic communities in East Africa, who have the highest rates of trachoma in the world, says Hezron Ngugi, a trachoma researcher at the Kenya-based African Medical & Research Foundation (AMREF). </span></p>
<p><span>He says that as few doses of antibiotic as possible — coupled with environmental management, basic hygiene and improved sanitation — are key to combating trachoma, as the infection is passed on via eye discharge from an infected person. </span></p>
<p><span>Even the single dose treatment currently applied once a year requires government reliance on free donations from the International Trachoma Institute from pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Ngugi noted. </span></p>
<p><span>AMREF is currently researching the use of volunteer community health workers to give out azithromycin and provide advice to nomadic cattle herders in Kenya’s isolated Samburu district. Final results will be known next year.</span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/358/17/1870" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span>Link to full paper in the <em>New England Journal of Medicine</em></span></a> </span></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/trachoma-eliminated-in-tanzanian-village/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/trachoma-eliminated-in-tanzanian-village/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

The eye infection trachoma — the world’s leading preventable cause of blindness — can be successfully eliminated with just two doses of antibiotic, scientists report.

Researchers used two doses of the standard antibiotic azithromycin, spaced two years apart, to eliminate trachoma in the community of Kahe Mpya, Tanzania.

They reported their results in the New England Journal of Medicine last week (April 24).

The success suggests an alternative to the WHO’s current recommendations of annual doses of the antibiotic azithromycin over three years in at-risk communities.

Trachoma is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis infection. Repeated infections can cause scarring on the eyelid, resulting in it turning inside out and causing the eyelashes to scratch the cornea.

People in Kahe Mpya village were administered with azithromycin, and samples from their eyes monitored for the presence of trachoma infection. After the first treatment, infection fell from 9.5 per cent to 0.1 per cent. Three years after the second treatment, no infection was found in samples.

The Tanzanian research offers a solution to help nomadic communities in East Africa, who have the highest rates of trachoma in the world, says Hezron Ngugi, a trachoma researcher at the Kenya-based African Medical & Research Foundation (AMREF).

He says that as few doses of antibiotic as possible — coupled with environmental management, basic hygiene and improved sanitation — are key to combating trachoma, as the infection is passed on via eye discharge from an infected person.

Even the single dose treatment currently applied once a year requires government reliance on free donations from the International Trachoma Institute from pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Ngugi noted.

AMREF is currently researching the use of volunteer community health workers to give out azithromycin and provide advice to nomadic cattle herders in Kenya’s isolated Samburu district. Final results will be known next year.

Link to full paper in the New England Journal of Medicine