India eliminates Trachoma as a public health problem

New Delhi, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) India has reportedly eliminated Trachoma, a bacterial infection that affects the eyes, as a public health problem, and has become the third country in the region to achieve this milestone.

October 9, 2024
11:51

World Health Organization (WHO)’s Regional Director for Europe, Saima Wazed, presented in New Delhi the official certificate to Aradhana Patnaik, an authority at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Caused by the bacterium Chlamydia Trachomatis, Trachoma is contagious, spreading through contact with the eyes, eyelids, nose, or throat secretions of infected people. If left untreated, it causes irreversible blindness.

WHO has termed Trachoma as a neglected tropical disease. WHO estimates suggest that 150 million people worldwide are affected by Trachoma and 6 million of them are blind or at risk of visually disabling complications.

Its incidence is higher in disadvantaged communities living in poor environmental conditions.

The disease was one of the leading causes of blindness in India in the 1950s and 1960s. It forced the government to launch the National Trachoma Control Program in 1963, and later on, Trachoma control efforts were integrated into India’s National Blindness Control Program.

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