Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The World Health Organization on October 8 felicitated India for eliminating trachoma — a bacterial eye infection that can cause irreversible blindness. India is the fourth country in Southeast Asia, after Nepal, Myanmar, and Pakistan to achieve the feat, the WHO said.
Trachoma is a neglected tropical disease that is caused by infection by the Chlamydia trachomatis bacterium. The disease, if left untreated can result in irreversible blindness. “The Regional Office for SouthEast Asia of the World Health Organization deems it a great honour to declare that the Government of India has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem in 2024,” read a citation by the WHO. “India’s success is due to the strong leadership of its Government,” said Saima Wazed, Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia.
The Regional Director also lauded the commitment of ophthalmologists and other cadres of healthcare workers who ensured “effective surveillance, diagnosis, and management of active trachoma, provision of surgical services for trichiasis, and promotion of water, sanitation, and hygiene, particularly facial cleanliness, among communities”.
Wazed presented a plaque and a citation to India, at the ‘Public Health Awards’ event at the Seventy Seventh Regional Committee Session being held in the national capital. India was known to be trachoma endemic in the 1950s and 1960s. Currently, there is no recent evidence on the magnitude of trachoma and related blindness in India, as per the Health Ministry survey.
The Union government had declared the country free from infective trachoma and active trachoma in children. The findings of the National Trachoma Prevalence Surveys and Trachoma Rapid Assessment Surveys conducted from 2014 to 2017 showed that the overall prevalence of active trachoma was 0.7 per cent.
