An eye for inequality: how trachoma relates to poverty in Tanzania and Vietnam.

Purpose: An important challenge for trachoma control strategies is to break the circle of poverty, poor hygiene and poor health by bringing its benefits to the poor. This article aims to assess to what extent trachoma is a disease of the poor, and trachoma services reach the poor in Tanzania and Vietnam.

Methods: Individual level data on trachoma prevalence (active trachoma and trichiasis) and utilization of trachoma-related services were collected in both countries in 2004.

Simplification and improvement of height-based azithromycin treatment for paediatric trachoma.

Recent data showing that azithromycin is safe at higher dosages than previously documented provide an opportunity to explore several important improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of height-based treatment of paediatric trachoma. The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of a single standardised schedule for application in any trachoma-endemic region. Data for 60813 children from Asia, North and sub-Saharan Africa were analysed.

Integration of trachoma control into primary health care: the Tanzanian experience.

Tanzania was among the first countries to launch a trachoma control program with support from the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) using surgery, antibiotics, facial cleanliness, and environmental improvement (SAFE) strategy with azithromycin. More than one million children less than 10 years of age in Tanzania have active disease and an estimated 54,000 people have trichiasis. Since 2000, Tanzania has implemented major health sector reform that have been carried out in three phases in 114 districts.

Height as a proxy for weight in determining azithromycin treatment for paediatric trachoma.

Azithromycin (Zithromax, Pfizer Inc., New York, NY, USA) is effective in the control of blinding trachoma. Community-based azithromycin treatment is recommended by the World Health Organization as part of a multipronged strategy aimed at the global elimination of binding trachoma by the year 2020.