Prevalence of Trachoma in 72 Districts of Afghanistan in 2018-2019: Results of 35 Population-based Prevalence Surveys.

Ahmad Shah Salam; Rafiqullah Qayumi; Abdul Majeed Siddiqi; Mohammad Naseem; Mirwais Mansoor; Robert Butcher ORCID logo; Ana Bakhtiari; Kristen Renneker; Rebecca Willis; Cristina Jimenez; +6 more... Michael Dejene; Naimullah Safi; Anne Heggen; Anthony W Solomon; Emma M Harding-Esch ORCID logo; Najeebullah Alizoi; (2022) Prevalence of Trachoma in 72 Districts of Afghanistan in 2018-2019: Results of 35 Population-based Prevalence Surveys. OPHTHALMIC EPIDEMIOLOGY. pp. 1-11. ISSN 0928-6586 DOI: 10.1080/09286586.2021.2015784
Copy

BACKGROUND: To determine where interventions are needed to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem, prevalence data are needed. We aimed to generate baseline population-based data on trachoma prevalence in suspected-endemic areas of Afghanistan. METHODS: Cross-sectional population-based prevalence surveys designed according to World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations were conducted in 35 evaluation units (EUs) covering 72 districts. In selected households, all resident individuals aged ≥1 year were examined for trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) and trachomatous trichiasis (TT) according to the WHO simplified trachoma grading system. Water, sanitation and hygiene access was assessed in households of survey participants. RESULTS: 104,104 people aged ≥1 year were examined, including 43,774 children aged 1-9 years and 46,439 people aged ≥15 years. The age-adjusted prevalence of TF in 1-9-year-olds was ≥5% in 3 EUs, with the highest EU TF prevalence being 7.8%. The age- and gender-adjusted prevalence of TT unknown to the health system in ≥15-year-olds was <0.2% in all EUs. The majority of households had access to an improved water source within 30 minutes of the house. However, only a minority of households had an improved latrine and/or a handwash station. CONCLUSIONS: Trachoma is not a public health problem in the majority of EUs surveyed. However, antibiotic mass drug administration, promotion of facial cleanliness and environmental improvement (the A, F and E components of the SAFE strategy) are needed for trachoma elimination purposes in three of the EUs surveyed in Afghanistan.


picture_as_pdf
Prevalence of Trachoma in 72 Districts of Afghanistan in 2018 2019 Results of 35 Population based Prevalence Surveys.pdf
subject
Published Version
Available under Creative Commons: 4.0

View Download

Atom BibTeX OpenURL ContextObject in Span Multiline CSV OpenURL ContextObject Dublin Core Dublin Core MPEG-21 DIDL EndNote HTML Citation JSON MARC (ASCII) MARC (ISO 2709) METS MODS RDF+N3 RDF+N-Triples RDF+XML RIOXX2 XML Reference Manager Refer Simple Metadata ASCII Citation EP3 XML
Export

Downloads