Funding: Trachoma diagnosis
7 March 2006
A trial in Ghana and Tanzania will test whether a cheap 'dipstick' diagnostic test for Chlamydia trachomatis can aid campaigns to eliminate blinding trachoma.
Trachoma, caused by infection with the C. trachomatis bacterium, is the world's commonest infectious cause of blindness. It can, however, be eliminated with a single round of the antibiotic azithromycin, which protects treated populations for two years.
A global campaign has been established by the World Health Organization to eliminate trachoma, and the manufacturer of azithromycin has agreed to donate the drug to control programmes. The programmes would be more effective, however, if the disease could be reliably diagnosed – visual inspection of eyes is not foolproof.
To this end, tropical health specialist Professor David Mabey of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Dr Helen Lee at the University of Cambridge, who has developed a low-cost 'dipstick' diagnostic technology, have joined forces to trial a new diagnostic test for C. trachomatis. If this performs well in the field, reliable diagnosis could easily and cheaply be integrated into elimination programmes.
