The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that Libya has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, marking a significant achievement for the region's public health. The milestone made Libya the 28th country worldwide and the 8th in the region to eliminate trachoma.
Trachoma, caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, is spread through contact with infected eye discharge via hands, clothing, or flies. Repeated infections can lead to scarring of the inner eyelid, turning eyelashes inward to scratch the eyeball: a painful condition known as trichiasis that can result in blindness.
Following validation of elimination of trachoma as a public health problem, Libya becomes the 59th country globally and the 10th in the Eastern Mediterranean Region to have eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease.
Burundi has become the eighth country in the region to eliminate trachoma, a tropical disease that spreads through personal contact, contaminated surfaces, and by flies. Trachoma is also the first neglected tropical disease to be eliminated in the country.
The Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
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After Ghana, Gambia is only the second African country to eliminate trachoma - a bacterial eye infection that damages the eyelids and causes the eyelashes to turn inwards, is one of 20 neglected tropical diseases that the World Health Organization says disproportionately affect the world's poorest people, writes Emeline Wuilbercq for The Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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