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The Lancet Features SAFE Article by Carter Center Trachoma Control Director
Carter
Center Photo
A Sudanese girl
in Eastern Equatoria State takes a dose of banana-flavored azithromycin
to protect herself from the bacteria that causes trachoma. Young children
carry the highest burden of active trachoma infection and annual mass distribution
of antibiotics is recommended for communities where more than 10 percent
of young children suffer from the disease. Recent studies have shown that
communities in southern Sudan receiving mass antibiotic distribution in
conjunction with other interventions in the SAFE strategy have benefited
from lower incidences of trachoma and trichiasis.
Learn
more about the Carter Center's work in Sudan. |
Effect
of three years of SAFE (surgery, antibiotics, facial cleanliness, and environmental
change) strategy for trachoma control in southern Sudan: a cross-sectional study
The Carter Center’s
trachoma control efforts continue to transform lives in affected communities.
An article published in The Lancet's Aug. 12, 2006, issue indicates that trachoma
prevention initiative known as the SAFE strategy (surgery, antibiotics, facial
cleanliness, and environmental improvement) applied to targeted communities
in southern Sudan reduced prevalence of active trachoma, and unclean faces by
up to 92 percent and 87 percent, respectively.
The groundbreaking results of this study provide hope that if the strategy can
be implemented successfully in southern Sudan (an area with limited resources,
little infrastructure, and difficulties in access and insecurity) the strategy
can be implemented effectively in other trachoma-endemic countries. In addition,
the study raises opportunity for future research on the collateral health benefits
that SAFE strategy can provide toward prevention of other communicable diseases
such as diarrhoea, intestinal helminths, pneumonia and malaria.
The article's authors include Carter Center Consultant Dr. Jeremiah Ngondi,
and Dr.
Paul Emerson, technical director of the Carter Center’s Trachoma
Control Program. The
University of Cambridge partnered with the Center on this article.
The Carter Center thanks all of its donors and following institutional partners:
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Lions Clubs International Foundation, and Pfizer
Inc.
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