It uses the same approach and technology as the Global Trachoma Mapping Project. Thanks to the two projects, on average one person has been examined for trachoma every 26 seconds since 2012. And since Tropical Data began in 2016, the initiative has supported ministries of health to conduct more than 2,400 surveys, examining 7.6 million people in more than 46 countries.
Working in some of the most remote and difficult environments, the service helps countries to collect high-quality, standardised data, and there are plans to extend the service to support other neglected tropical diseases.
The main website contains further information and resources, and enables programmes to request a survey and manage their data.
Visit tropicaldata.orgSmartphone technology is just one aspect of the service. Data is sent from the field to the secure cloud-based server, where a data team works with health ministry staff to clean, analyse and approve the data, much faster than previous paper-based surveys. The service also provides epidemiological support to countries to develop their surveys, and a globally standardised training system.
With the evidence generated by the Tropical Data project, ministries of health are able to pinpoint exactly where to run trachoma treatment programmes and offer life-changing support. It also highlights where treatment programmes are no longer needed because interventions have been a success. Crucially, this helps countries gather evidence for the World Health Organization to show where they are free from the disease, so trachoma elimination can be declared.
Tropical Data is run by a consortium of partners including the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, RTI International and Sightsavers. It is made possible thanks to the support of governments in endemic countries, plus UK aid, USAID and The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust.
As even more countries get closer to eliminating trachoma, a new challenge is emerging: how to keep the health workforce well-trained on identifying signs of the disease.
Benin and Ghana, two of the countries where Sightsavers works, have been recognised for their success in wiping out several diseases that are prevalent in poor and marginalised communities.
Sightsavers’ Boubacar Morou Dicko shares the obstacles Mali faced on the road to eliminating trachoma, and how the country was able to overcome them.