The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated the Malawi as having eliminated the trachome – a bacterial infection of the eye which can cause irreversible blindness if left untreated – as a public health problem. Malawi becomes the first country in Southern Africa and the fifth in Africa to achieve this milestone.
Malawi has been known to be a trachoma-endemic country since the 1980s. In 2015, Malawi said 7.6 million people were at risk of trachoma infection.
Reminders on the trachome
The trachome is a non-specific, contagious bacterial eye infection caused by Chlamydia trachomatis. Initially affecting the eyelid, it evolves in the absence of treatment towards irreversible corneal lesions that can lead to blindness. Its tank is strictly human. There are two known biovars and 18 serovars with a particular tropism for the genital and ocular mucous membranes.
Contamination occurs from the genitals to the eyes, through soiled hands. Indirect ocular contamination is possible by flies landing on the eyes of newborns in highly endemic countries.
Source: World Health Organization Africa Office.