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Malawi Free From Trachoma - WHO

Malawi has become the first country in southern Africa to eliminate trachoma, the World Health Organization has said. Trachoma is a disease of the eye, caused by an infection from the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. Blindness from trachoma is irreversible.

Malawi is the fourth country in Africa to stamp out the bacterial infection, after Ghana, Gambia and Togo. The WHO said Malawi has been known to be endemic for trachoma since the 1980s. Trachoma is one of a number of neglected tropical diseases, or NTDs, and is endemic in nearly half the countries in Africa.

The disease received due attention in 2008, following a survey conducted in support of the WHO and Sightsavers, a nongovernmental organization. The findings recommmended that Malawi step up efforts by establishing a national taskforce which implemented the WHO-recommended strategy known as SAFE, to control the spread of the disease.

InFocus

Alaine Kathryn Knipes/CDC

(file photo).

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