The only program dedicated solely to the alleviation of the world's leading cause of preventable blindness, trachoma, has reached nearly 2 million people in its first 16 months in Tanzania and Morocco, the International Trachoma Initiative announced today.
Trachoma is a bacterial infection of the upper eyelid that causes blindness.
ITI-supported SAFE programs have already gone to scale in Tanzania and Morocco and are approved for Vietnam and Mali. The progress that we have made to date has exceeded our own expectations for our first year's operations. In treating trachoma, peer-reviewed research has shown that one, single, oral, annual dose of Zithromax is easier to use, less expensive to distribute, and more effective than the previously recommended regimen of tetracycline eye ointment twice daily for six weeks. We are very pleased with the collaboration to date. Decisions about which regions are targeted and when the programs will actually begin are made by the health ministries in the five pilot countries.