WASHINGTON, USA, (PAHO) — Over the past two years, countries of the Americas have made significant progress towards eliminating trachoma, the leading cause of infectious blindness worldwide. These advances are part of the Initiative for the Elimination of Trachoma in the Americas, led by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in collaboration with the Government of Canada.
Trachoma, caused by the Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria, is transmitted through direct contact with ocular and nasal secretions from infected individuals. In the region, it persists in rural and remote areas of Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Peru, where approximately 5.6 million people are at risk of contracting the disease. Women and children are the most affected.
Since 2023, interventions based on the SAFE strategy recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) have been implemented as part of the initiative. These include surgery to prevent blindness, antibiotic distribution, facial hygiene promotion, and improvements in environmental conditions.
Actions have also been expanded to include countries with suspected trachoma, such as Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, and Venezuela, as well as Mexico, which in 2017 became the first country in the region to eliminate the disease as a public health issue and continues to work to prevent its reemergence.
A key component of this initiative is surveillance, which helps identify areas where trachoma remains a problem and confirm or rule out its presence in others. To assess the magnitude of the disease, prevalence surveys were conducted in Brazil and Venezuela in the Indigenous Health Special District of Tocantins and the state of Amazonas, respectively. The results of these surveys will guide the required interventions.
In Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and El Salvador, rapid assessments are being conducted in prioritized risk areas to determine whether prevalence surveys are necessary. In remote and hard-to-reach communities, including those visited in Bolivia, over 4,300 people were examined. These visits also provided visual health services—including surgeries for 17 cataract patients—oral health care, pediatrics, psychopedagogy, gynecology, maternal health, telemedicine, immunizations, and general and traditional medicine.
Training local health personnel has also been a key focus. Between 2023 and 2024, programs in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico combined theory and practice to train surgeons and health workers in surgical procedures, as well as surveillance and control.
Access to clean water and sanitation, essential for preventing the transmission of trachoma, has also been addressed. PAHO has promoted the collection of data on these conditions in priority areas, which has enabled the development of a municipal dashboard to facilitate intervention planning to improve these services and reduce the risk of the disease.
Trachoma is part of the more than 30 communicable diseases and related conditions that PAHO aims to eliminate by 2030 through its Elimination Initiative.
The post Countries of the Americas make progress against trachoma appeared first on Caribbean News Global.
