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Award recognizes efforts of Trachoma Control Program in eliminating trachoma
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PARIS — Trachoma elimination programs have made considerable progress, but challenges still remain, according to Paul Emerson, PhD, director of the Trachoma Control Program at the Carter Center, Atlanta.
 Paul Emerson |
At the meeting of the French Society of Ophthalmology, Dr. Emerson was awarded the 2012 Trachoma Gold Medal by the International Organization Against Trachoma and the French League Against Trachoma.
The Trachoma Control Program helps to implement the World Health Organization-approved SAFE strategy for trachoma control: surgery, antibiotics, face and hand washing, and environmental hygiene.
“In comparison to several other programs to control tropical diseases, the SAFE strategy is complex to implement because it is essentially two programs run simultaneously,” Dr. Emerson said. “One focuses on the identification and surgical treatment of individual patients with severe blinding trachoma, while the other aims at controlling and preventing transmission of the early stages of the disease. Control and prevention involve mass drug administration, health education, hygiene promotion, and provision of water and sanitation.”
Due to the implementation of the SAFE strategy by various international organizations, 900,000 trichiasis surgeries have been performed, more than 250 million doses of antibiotics have been distributed and 40 million people have access to SAFE. Several countries, notably Morocco, Ghana and Gambia, have reached the proxy target for elimination, and others, such as Mali, Niger and Sudan, are on track.
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