[Epidemiological surveillance of trachoma: evaluation and perspective]

Abstract

World Health Organization (W.H.O.) carried out a survey recently. This survey consisted in a questionnaire to some of its Member States to try to define the importance and world distribution of trachoma. The answers which have been sent by ocular health advisers and/or persons in charge of national ophthalmological institutes showed a systemic lack of significant data to be used for planning or for epidemiological surveillance. Nevertheless, the analysis of this survey seems to lead to the conclusion that trachoma is not still the main cause of blindness in some countries who used to be famous because of an important endemicity. However, trachoma is still a real ocular health and public health problem in numerous other countries, mainly in rural areas and- or areas which are away from socio-sanitary development areas. To have a better quality concerning epidemiological data and to obtain an easier regularity in their collecting, W.H.O. Program for the Blindness Prevention proposed a simplified coding system of trachoma and its complications (S.S.C.T.C.). If this system was accepted by numerous countries it would allow: the use of a simple, reliable and cheap tool to collect epidemiological informations which would constitute an help to take decisions to be able to, give a second start to epidemiological surveillance of trachoma, to have a better idea of the localization of endemic centres of the disease and of this impact on population, to define the needs concerning collective and individual medical and surgical treatments.