Strategies for the control of blinding trachoma

Project

Trachoma, infection of the eye with Chlamydia trachomatis, is the world's most common from of blindness, affecting 150 million people in 48 countries, with 6 million sufferers being blind. C. trachomatis is easily spread in crowded, unhygienic conditions. A simple antibiotic treatment (azithromycin) is now available, but an effective health campaign also needs to address re-infection. The World Health Organization has launched a programme to eliminate trachoma by 2020, based on the SAFE strategy - surgery of the eyelid, antibiotics, facial cleanliness and environmental improvement.

This programme will help to provide the evidence base on which to build successful control programmes. Using new genetic-based diagnostic techniques, researchers will assess the burden of infection in Gambian and Tanzanian communities, evaluate the impact of control programmes based on widespread antibiotic use and fly control, and identify sources of re-infection and risk factors for severe disease.

Information from such large-scale studies would benefit public health officials planning to implement the SAFE strategy in Africa.

Applicants

Professor D C W Mabey
Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Wellcome Trust Bloomsbury Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK

Professor L Bailey
Department of Clinical Medicine, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK

Dr Faal
National Eye Care Programme, Royal Victoria Hospital, The Gambia

Dr S K West
Dana Centre, Preventive Ophthalmology, Wilmer Ophthalmology Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

Professor G J Johnson
Department of Preventive Ophthalmology, Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK