Trachoma: looking forward to Global Elimination of Trachoma by 2020 (GET 2020)

Abstract

There is fortunately increasing international awareness of the problem of needless blindness from trachoma and enhanced international cooperation. This is exemplified by the World Health Organization Alliance for the Global Elimination of Blinding Trachoma by 2020 (GET 2020), the World Health Assembly resolution 51.11, 1998, and the inclusion of trachoma as a priority under the disease control component of the Global Initiative for the Elimination of Avoidable Blindness, Vision 2020--the Right to Sight. Evidence-based advances in knowledge and intervention strategies together with the additional financial resources now available offer opportunities for a concerted effort to control and eliminate blinding trachoma, long before the year 2020, in most countries.