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Single-dose azithromycin effective against trachoma

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One round of mass treatment with azithromycin can interrupt transmission of the infection that causes trachoma, a group of British researchers working in East Africa found.

Anthony W. Solomon, MB, BS, PhD, and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine collected conjunctival swabs to determine the rates of Chlamydia trachomatis infections in a Tanzanian community. Swabs were then collected at 2, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after mass treatment with the very-high-coverage anti-infective azithromycin. A total of 956 residents received treatment (97.8% of the community).

The prevalence of infection fell from 9.5% before mass treatment to 2.1% at 2 months and 0.1% at 24 months. The quantitative burden of the community infection was 13.9% of the pretreatment level at 2 months and 0.8% at 24 months. At each follow-up, more than 90% of the infections were found in participants who had tested positive the previous time they had been tested.

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.