New Delhi, Mar 10 (PTI) The AIIMS-Delhi’s ophthalmic centre is hopeful that India will be declared free of chronic eye infection trachoma trichiasis by this year-end, with its ongoing survey across 10 states and Union territories finding that the disease’s prevalence was much lower than the WHO’s requirement for the status.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines elimination of trachoma, a leading cause of infective blindness globally, as less than five per cent prevalence in the population.
The survey is being conducted in 200 districts in eight states and two Union Territories to assess the prevalence of trachoma trichiasis (TT) and it is expected to be completed in May, the chief of the Dr RP Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, Dr J S Titiyal, said on Friday.
Following the survey’s completion, the Union health ministry will notify the global health body and “hopefully by this year-end, the WHO will declare India trachoma-free”, he said.
In the 1970s, India was one of the countries where trachoma was prevalent. But in 2017, the government declared that active trachoma had been eliminated among children, he said.
“But the WHO did not give India the trachoma-free status because it wanted us to conduct a nationwide trachomatous trichiasis only survey,” he said. Titiyal said carrying out a survey in the entire country was not possible and so a discussion was held with the WHO, and it asked for a study of states that were trachoma-endemic in the 1970s.
Under the TT only survey, being funded by the global health body, 5,26,316 individuals in 163 districts have been screened door-to-door by trained personnel till date since 2019, he said.
“Whichever areas we have surveyed so far, the prevalence of trichiasis has been found to be less than five per cent — 0.27 per 1,000 population. By May, the survey is likely to be completed after which the health ministry will have to notify WHO and hopefully by this year-end the WHO will declare India trachoma-free,” Titiyal said.
The survey is being conducted in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and the Union Territories of Chandigarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, he said.
“Today, we have a challenge to get India declared trachoma-free country by WHO,” Titiyal said.
TT is a chronic infective disease of the eye and is the leading cause of infective blindness globally, he said and added that it is a disease of poor environmental and personal hygiene and inadequate access to water and sanitation.
It affects the conjunctiva under the eyelids, Titiyal said. Repeated infections cause scarring leading to in-turning of the eyelashes and eyelids, which further causes damage to the cornea, the doctor explained.
People in certain pockets of states such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and Nicobar Island have been found to affected by the disease, he said.
Trachoma was the most a dominant cause of blindness in India in the 1950s and over 50 per cent population was affected in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, Titiyal said. PTI PLB ANB ANB
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