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Eliminating trachoma possible by 2020, WHO says

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NEW YORK — The goal of eliminating trachoma by the target date of 2020 “now seems possible,” according to recently published information. Some countries in which the infection is endemic have seen a reduction in the rate of acute infection in children by as much as 50%.

The World Health Organization set the goal of eradicating trachoma by 2020 in 1997. Trachoma elimination programs are now under way in Morocco, Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, Vietnam, Sudan, Niger, Nepal and Ethiopia, according to the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI).

Pfizer, a partner in the ITI along with the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, national governments and nongovernmental organizations, expects to donate 135 million more treatments of its drug Zithromax (azithromycin tablets) in addition to the 8 million it has donated in the past 5 years. ITI also notes more than 70,000 surgeries have been performed to halt corneal damage and prevent blindness in these countries, according to a press release from the ITI.