ICTC strongly encourages its members and all trachoma stakeholders to use these figures for consistency of messaging.
- Trachoma is the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness and one of 20 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) that affect over one billion of the world’s poorest people - Source: WHO
- 136.2 million people live in trachoma endemic areas - Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 6 August 2021
- Trachoma is responsible for the visual impairment or blindness of about 1.9 million people - Source: World Report on Vision
- 11 countries have been validated by WHO as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem (Cambodia, China, The Gambia, Ghana, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman) - Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 6 August 2021
- 7 countries may require interventions but in which the necessary investigations in suspected trachoma-endemic areas have not yet been completed (Angola, Botswana, Libya, Micronesia, Namibia, Somalia, Venezuela) – Source: WHO Global Health Observatory
- 44 countries are known to require interventions - Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 6 August 2021
- The estimated number of individuals with TT (the late blinding stage of trachoma) worldwide fell 20% from 2.5 million on 11 March 2019 to 1.8 million in 2021. Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 6 August 2021
- In 2020, of the 34 countries that reported TT surgery in 2020, 33 reported gender-disaggregated data, covering 96% of individuals operated on for TT; of these, 66% were female, indicating gender equality given that, compared to men, women have nearly twice the risk of developing trachomatous trichiasis – Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 24 July 2020
- In 2020, 32.8 million people received antibiotics for trachoma. Antibiotics were distributed in 334 (25%) of the 1338 districts that qualified during 2020. – Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 6 August 2021
- Over 952 million Zithromax® antibiotic treatments have been shipped since 1999 – Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 6 August 2021
- Nigeria, which holds 4% of the global burden of trachoma, further reduced its at risk population to 5.08 million people, a reduction from 11 million in 2019. – Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 6 August 2021
- Ethiopia which carries 49% of the global burden of trachoma reduced the number of people at risk to 67.2 million (down from 72 million in 2019). – Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 6 August 2021
- Women are two times more likely to need eye surgery than men - Source: The excess burden of trachomatous trichiasis in women: a systematic review and meta-analysis, 2009
- Investing in the SAFE strategy (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness, Environmental improvement) and coordinating with NTDs, will prevent the loss of 4 million Healthy Life Years (HLYs) by 2030 - Source: Concerted Efforts to Control or Eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases: How Much Health Will Be Gained? 2016
View and download:
WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) also serves as an essential instrument for the dissemination of epidemiological information.