Updated By: LatestGKGS Desk
WHO: Nepal Becomes First In South East Asia To Eliminate 'Trachoma' Eye Infection
WHO: Nepal Becomes First In South East Asia To Eliminate Trachoma Eye Infection Disease- Details, WHO Criteria, About Trachoma
World Health Organization (WHO) has recently validated Nepal for having eliminated trachoma, a contagious bacterial infection of the eye.
With this validation, Nepal first country in WHO’s South-East Asia Region to defeat trachoma, world’s leading infectious cause of blindness. The eye disease was the second leading cause of preventable blindness in Nepal in the 1980s. Its prevalence in Nepal has fallen by 40%.
WHO Criteria Used To Eliminate Trachoma
Less than 5% of children aged 1–9 years have signs of active trachoma
Less than 0.2% of people aged 15 years and older have trachomatous trichiasis
Health system which can identify and manage new cases of trachomatous trichiasis
About Trachoma Infection
Trachoma is an eye disease caused by infection with bacterium Chlamydia in young children. It causes inflamed granulation on the inner surface of eyelids.
Trachoma infection spreads through contact with the infective eye or nose discharges. Ocular or nasal discharge can be trachomatis.
Trachoma Infection is particularly common in transmitted directly from person to person or is mediated by flies which have been in contact with eyes and noses of infected people.
Trachoma transmission is associated with poor sanitation and hygiene, which increase the availability of eye discharges and encourage the breeding of flies. It can be treated with antibiotics in case of children. Older people infected with it require eyelid surgery to cure it.
India had self-declared itself free from infective Trachoma in December 2017 after it met the goal of trachoma elimination as specified by WHO under its GET2020 (Global Elimination of Trachoma by the year 2020) program.
