World’s largest trachoma surveys support 60th country

Bolivia has become the 60th country to be surveyed for trachoma, marking another milestone in a global initiative that has been running for more than a decade.

The surveys began as the Global Trachoma Mapping Project and later evolved into the Tropical Data partnership. Since 2012, an average of one person has been examined for the eye disease every 25 seconds, showing the scale of this global data collection effort.

Health workers have been going door to door since the start of the initiative, often in remote and challenging environments, examining people’s eyes for trachoma and recording the results on smartphones. This digital approach ensures that health ministries can receive fast, reliable data to guide their efforts to eliminate the neglected tropical disease.

The surveys have been supported by Sightsavers in partnership with the International Trachoma Initiative, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and RTI International. The initiative has so far involved nearly 5,000 surveys, in which more than 15 million people have had their eyes examined. This has contributed to 20 countries eliminating trachoma as a public health problem.

Bolivia’s survey came with additional challenges, as it involved reaching indigenous groups living in remote areas of the Amazon rainforest. The survey team had to cross swift rivers and navigate muddy roads to access the communities.

Ely Linares, from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) – the World Health Organization’s regional office for the Americas, said: “The members of the Tropical Data team come from diverse backgrounds and provide a multidisciplinary perspective, which has allowed us to carry out the survey under the best possible conditions. Through their support, we have gained knowledge and clear guidance on how disease surveillance should be carried out: how to reach communities, how to engage with the health system, and how to develop the survey itself.”

Alongside conducting eye screenings, the Bolivian health ministry introduced another element to their surveys with the support of Tropical Data and PAHO – finger-prick blood testing. This technique enables countries to test for multiple diseases simultaneously, making surveys more efficient and cost-effective.