Over 7 Million Treated for Trachoma in Ethiopia
A child receives Zithromax® during MalTra Week in Ethopia. (Photo: Yen Kim for ITI) Twice a year, millions of people in Ethiopia line up in hundreds of towns and villages to be treated for trachoma in Amhara, the most endemic region of this East African country. It happens once a year in western Amhara, and once in eastern Amhara. The goal is for every person to get the antibiotic Zithromax® donated by Pfizer to treat and prevent trachoma, an eye infection that can lead to blindness. At the same time, each person with fever is screened for malaria, and treated if needed, hence the campaign is called MalTra Week. Learn about this year's MalTraWeek here. |
The Right to Eye Health: Hyderabad Declaration includes Focus on Trachoma
One of the largest global gatherings dedicated to the elimination of avoidable blindness and access to eye health services for all took place recently in Hyderabad, India and issued a forceful declaration on the "Right to Eye Health." Known as the Hyderabad Declaration, the document is a stirring call to action for governments, civil society and the private sector to work together to address eye health as a right. For the first time in such a declaration, trachoma is prominently featured. Read more here. |
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WASH and NTD Programs Discuss Common Vision
A woman and her son are able to collect clean water at a village pump in Ethiopia.
(Photo: Stephanie Ogden for ITI)
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hosted a roundtable discussion at its headquarters in Seattle, Washington on December 6-7 on the topic of collaboration between the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector and the people who work to end Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). Thirty participants representing research institutions, private philanthropy, bilateral aid, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) attended the roundtable organized by the Gates Foundation, Emory University's Center for Global Safe Water, and The Task Force for Global Health's International Trachoma Initiative and Children Without Worms programs.
Read what the roundtable achieved here.
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Major Meetings
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Trachoma Expert Committee Focuses on Scaling Up
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(photo: Huub Gelderblom for ITI)
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The Trachoma Expert Committee (TEC), whose members advise ITI and Pfizer on strategic, technical and operational issues, and approve the allocations of Zithromax®, met for two days in London in November. The TEC meets twice annually to review country applications for Zithromax®. In London, they discussed the need to ensure there is capacity in-country to distribute the antibiotic, and how to make the best use of meeting times with country program officers. "The discussions are becoming richer and richer with every TEC meeting, as members consider the best way to scale up the program in order to achieve our goal of eliminating blinding trachoma by 2020," said ITI Director Danny Haddad.
Uniting to Combat NTDs
A meeting in January 2012 produced the London Declaration to generate a new, coordinated push to accelerate progress toward eliminating or controlling 10 NTDs by the end of the decade. On November 16-17, at the World Bank in Washington DC, a follow-up meeting took place called United to Combat NTDs: Translating the London Declaration into Action. ITI joined other stakeholders to help map out concrete actions that are needed to make those 2020 goals a reality and explore opportunities for synergy and greater efficiency.
ICTC Meets in Washington, DC
 Members of the International Coalition for Trachoma Control met in November 2012 in Washington, DC following the United to Combat NTDs meeting, to discuss the mapping of trachoma prevalence in areas that have not yet been mapped. The trachoma community will be scaling up SAFE strategy implementation over the next few years and ICTC provides a forum for involved organizations to share methods and coordinate efforts. The group also agreed to create an ICTC advocacy plan and publish a report from a trichiasis surgery workshop earlier this year in Moshi, Tanzania.
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Relevant Articles
Eliminating trichiasis: the next steps forward in the Community Eye Health Journal examines how to provide access to quality surgical services to correct trachomatous trichiasis (TT), the incredibly painful condition when in-turned eyelashes scrape the cornea, causing damage that leads to irreversible blindness. Based on a Global Trichiasis Scientific Meeting in Tanzania earlier this year, the authors Paul Courtright, Matthew Burton and Paul Emerson outline the three relevant areas of TT surgery--management, training and quality, and output and uptake--explaining the progress and challenges for each area.
WASH: The silent weapon against NTDs is a comprehensive look at the critical role that water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) play in the prevention and control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, especial trachoma, soil-transmitted helminthes (STH) and schistosomiasis. The article was written by three staffers at WaterAid with contributions from the NTD Non-Government Development Organization Network (NNN). It is one of the first pieces to show the linkages and lay out how integrating the WASH and NTD sectors through the coordinated and combined interventions of mass drug administration, nutrition, education and behavior change will advance the work of both sectors and help achieve the common goal of healthy people. |
2012 YEAR IN REVIEW
ITI is proud to have worked this year on a range of innovations that are having real impact in the prevention and treatment of trachoma and other NTDs worldwide. Read highlights here. |
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