India has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem: WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared that the Government of India has eliminated Trachoma as a public health problem.

• India became the third country in the South-East Asia Region to achieve this milestone.

About Trachoma

• About: Disease of the eye caused by infection with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis
  • If left untreated, it causes irreversible blindness
• WHO has termed Trachoma as a neglected tropical disease.
• Distribution: Trachoma is hyperendemic in many of the poorest and most rural areas of Africa, Central and South America, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.
• Spread:
  • Through personal contact (via hands, clothes, bedding or hard surfaces) & 
  • By flies that have been in contact with discharge from the eyes or nose of an infected person.
• WHO Recommends SAFE strategy (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness, and Environmental improvement) to eliminate trachoma.
• As of October 2024, 20 countries have been validated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem:
  • Benin, Cambodia, China, Gambia, Ghana, India, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Togo, and Vanuatu.
• Global incidence:
  • In 2021, 69 266 people received surgical treatment for advanced stages of the disease, and 64.6 million people were treated with antibiotics. 
  • Global antibiotic coverage in 2021 was 44%

Centre’s Efforts

• Government launched National Trachoma Control Program in 1963 and later on Trachoma control efforts were integrated into India’s National Program for Control of Blindness & Visual Impairment (NPCBVI)
• As a result, in 2017, India was declared free from infectious Trachoma. 
  • However, surveillance continued for trachoma cases in all the districts of India from 2019 onwards till 2024.
• Today, It has come down to less than 1%.

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Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)

• NTDs are diverse group of tropical infections which are common in low-income populations in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas
  • Caused by a variety of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa and parasitic worms (helminths)
  • They are called ‘neglected’ because they are almost absent from the global health agenda 
• WHO has established a list of 17 official NTDs.
  • Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, cysticercosis, dengue, dracunculiasis, etc.

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