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
- 142.2 million people live in trachoma endemic areas - Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 19 July 2019
- 9 countries have been validated as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem (Oman 2012, Morocco 2016, Cambodia 2017, Lao People’s Democratic Republic 2017, Mexico 2017, Ghana 2018, Nepal 2018, the Islamic Republic of Iran 2018, China 2019) - Source: WHO GET2020 Database
- 9 countries may require interventions; investigation needed (Afghanistan, Angola, Botswana, Libya, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, Somalia, Venezuala) - Source: WHO Global Health Observatory
- Trachoma is responsible for the visual impairment or blindness of about 1.9 million people
- 2.5 million people require urgent surgery to treat trachomatous trichiasis, the late blinding stage of trachoma - Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 19 July 2019
- In 2018, 145,287 people received surgery for trachomatous trichiasis. Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 19 July 2019
- 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
- In 2018, 89.1 million people were treated with antibiotics, representing 53% global coverage - Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 19 July 2019
- Remarkable progress towards elimination has been demonstrated by the year on year increased population coverage against the global need for MDA - Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 29 June 2018
- Over 800 million Zithromax® antibiotic treatments have been shipped since 1999 - Source: International Trachoma Initiative 2018
- 201 districts within 11 countries are described as insecure. Global elimination will be reliant on ensuring hard to reach and at-risk populations including refugees, internally displaced peoples and indigenous and nomadic populations are a focus for securing continued national, regional and global progress - Source: GET2020 database as at 17 April 2018
- 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
- In 2017, 70 million people lived in trachoma endemic areas in Ethiopia; that’s 44% of the global burden of active trachoma - Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 29 June 2018
- In 2018, 70% of antibiotics for trachoma were distributed in Ethiopia - Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 19 July 2019
- Ethiopia is making significant gains in scaling up the SAFE strategy. However, as the global trachoma map shrinks, Ethiopia will carry a larger proportion of the global burden - Source: GET2020 database as at 17 April 2018
View and download:
- Eliminating trachoma: accelerating towards 2020
- WHO trachoma factsheet, February 2018
- WHO GET2020 Alliance epidemiology overview, April 2018
- End trachoma: The time is now infographic, April 2018
WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) also serves as an essential instrument for the dissemination of epidemiological information.