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The Burden of Trachoma in Ayod County of Southern Sudan

BACKGROUND: Blindness due to trachoma is avoidable through Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial hygiene and Environmental improvements (SAFE). Recent surveys have shown trachoma to be a serious cause of blindness in Southern Sudan. We conducted this survey in Ayod County of Jonglei State to estimate the nee...

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Autores principales: King, Jonathan D., Ngondi, Jeremiah, Gatpan, Gideon, Lopidia, Ben, Becknell, Steve, Emerson, Paul M.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2553487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18820746
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000299
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author King, Jonathan D.
Ngondi, Jeremiah
Gatpan, Gideon
Lopidia, Ben
Becknell, Steve
Emerson, Paul M.
author_facet King, Jonathan D.
Ngondi, Jeremiah
Gatpan, Gideon
Lopidia, Ben
Becknell, Steve
Emerson, Paul M.
author_sort King, Jonathan D.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Blindness due to trachoma is avoidable through Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial hygiene and Environmental improvements (SAFE). Recent surveys have shown trachoma to be a serious cause of blindness in Southern Sudan. We conducted this survey in Ayod County of Jonglei State to estimate the need for intervention activities to eliminate blinding trachoma. METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS: A cross-sectional two-stage cluster random survey was conducted in November 2006. All residents of selected households were clinically assessed for trachoma using the World Health Organization (WHO) simplified grading scheme. A total of 2,335 people from 392 households were examined, of whom 1,107 were over 14 years of age. Prevalence of signs of active trachoma in children 1–9 years of age was: trachomatous inflammation follicular (TF) = 80.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 73.9–86.3); trachomatous inflammation intense (TI) = 60.7% (95% CI, 54.6–66.8); and TF and/or TI (active trachoma) = 88.3% (95% CI, 83.7–92.9). Prevalence of trachomatous trichiasis (TT) was 14.6% (95% CI, 10.9–18.3) in adults over 14 years of age; 2.9% (95% CI, 0.4–5.3) in children 1–14 years of age; and 8.4% (95% CI, 5.5–11.3) overall. The prevalence of corneal opacity in persons over 14 years of age with TT was 6.4% (95% CI, 4.5–8.3). No statistically significant difference was observed in the prevalence of trachoma signs between genders. Trachoma affected almost all households surveyed: 384/392 (98.0%) had at least one person with active trachoma and 130 (33.2%) had at least one person with trichiasis. CONCLUSIONS: Trachoma is an unnecessary public health problem in Ayod. The high prevalence of active trachoma and trichiasis confirms the severe burden of blinding trachoma found in other post-conflict areas of Southern Sudan. Based on WHO recommended thresholds, all aspects of the SAFE strategy are indicated to eliminate blinding trachoma in Ayod.
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spelling pubmed-25534872008-09-27 The Burden of Trachoma in Ayod County of Southern Sudan King, Jonathan D. Ngondi, Jeremiah Gatpan, Gideon Lopidia, Ben Becknell, Steve Emerson, Paul M. PLoS Negl Trop Dis Research Article BACKGROUND: Blindness due to trachoma is avoidable through Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial hygiene and Environmental improvements (SAFE). Recent surveys have shown trachoma to be a serious cause of blindness in Southern Sudan. We conducted this survey in Ayod County of Jonglei State to estimate the need for intervention activities to eliminate blinding trachoma. METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS: A cross-sectional two-stage cluster random survey was conducted in November 2006. All residents of selected households were clinically assessed for trachoma using the World Health Organization (WHO) simplified grading scheme. A total of 2,335 people from 392 households were examined, of whom 1,107 were over 14 years of age. Prevalence of signs of active trachoma in children 1–9 years of age was: trachomatous inflammation follicular (TF) = 80.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 73.9–86.3); trachomatous inflammation intense (TI) = 60.7% (95% CI, 54.6–66.8); and TF and/or TI (active trachoma) = 88.3% (95% CI, 83.7–92.9). Prevalence of trachomatous trichiasis (TT) was 14.6% (95% CI, 10.9–18.3) in adults over 14 years of age; 2.9% (95% CI, 0.4–5.3) in children 1–14 years of age; and 8.4% (95% CI, 5.5–11.3) overall. The prevalence of corneal opacity in persons over 14 years of age with TT was 6.4% (95% CI, 4.5–8.3). No statistically significant difference was observed in the prevalence of trachoma signs between genders. Trachoma affected almost all households surveyed: 384/392 (98.0%) had at least one person with active trachoma and 130 (33.2%) had at least one person with trichiasis. CONCLUSIONS: Trachoma is an unnecessary public health problem in Ayod. The high prevalence of active trachoma and trichiasis confirms the severe burden of blinding trachoma found in other post-conflict areas of Southern Sudan. Based on WHO recommended thresholds, all aspects of the SAFE strategy are indicated to eliminate blinding trachoma in Ayod. Public Library of Science 2008-09-24 /pmc/articles/PMC2553487/ /pubmed/18820746 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000299 Text en King et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
King, Jonathan D.
Ngondi, Jeremiah
Gatpan, Gideon
Lopidia, Ben
Becknell, Steve
Emerson, Paul M.
The Burden of Trachoma in Ayod County of Southern Sudan
title The Burden of Trachoma in Ayod County of Southern Sudan
title_full The Burden of Trachoma in Ayod County of Southern Sudan
title_fullStr The Burden of Trachoma in Ayod County of Southern Sudan
title_full_unstemmed The Burden of Trachoma in Ayod County of Southern Sudan
title_short The Burden of Trachoma in Ayod County of Southern Sudan
title_sort burden of trachoma in ayod county of southern sudan
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2553487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18820746
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000299
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