Global Strategy Lays Out Action Plan To Eliminate Blinding Trachoma By 2020 

An international coalition of partners in the fight to eliminate blinding trachoma by 2020 has published a global strategy with milestones to meet and steps to take in order to achieve the goal.

Crucial next steps include:

• Mapping disease prevalence
• Scaling up interventions, which include medicine and improved access to water and sanitation
• Implementing trachoma-control plans in endemic countries by 2015
• Raising funds at global and national levels for surveys, distribution of medicine, and improved access to clean water and latrines      

There is "an urgent need for action" to avoid additional suffering and unnecessary blindness for hundreds of thousands of people, according to the report, called "2020 INSight." It is produced by the International Coalition for Trachoma Control (ICTC) and available at http://www.trachomacoalition.org/node/713.

Blinding trachoma, endemic in 57 countries, "blinds four people every hour," the report says. More than 2 million people are either blind or suffer excruciating pain because of trachoma, according to 2020 INSight. About 4.6 million need surgery to prevent them from going blind.

The International Trachoma Initiative coordinated the publication of 2020 INSight, which is based on analysis and interviews conducted by the independent management-consulting firm McKinsey & Company. The strategy document was funded by Pfizer Inc.

Pfizer has since 1998 donated more than 225 million doses of the antibiotic Zithromax® to treat and prevent blinding trachoma. ITI manages distribution of the medicine.