Review: Targeting trachoma: Strategies to reduce the leading infectious cause of blindness

Abstract

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that in 2002, 1.3 million people were blind due to trachoma, an eye infection caused by Chlamydia trachomatis. This review examines the evidence behind current strategies to reduce the global burden of trachoma. Trachoma disappeared from most western nations before the advent of antibiotics, probably due to improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene. The current effort to target trachoma, headed by the WHO and the Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma by 2020, is called the SAFE (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement) strategy. Surgery for trachoma is more cost effective than extra-capsular cataract surgery and can reverse trichiasis (in-growing eyelashes), but needs to be repeated every few years. A single oral dose of azithromycin can eliminate trachoma infection, but cannot be used in infants under 6 months old, and needs to be given every few years in communities with a high prevalence of disease. Improved health education and facial hygiene has been linked to a lower incidence of trachoma, but the evidence is less clear than for surgery and antibiotics. Pit latrines and spraying with permethrin insecticide may reduce the spread of trachoma via eye-seeking flies.