Fighting Disease: Nigeria

Controlling Trachoma

The leading cause of preventable blindness in the world, trachoma is an excruciating bacterial disease endemic to the poorest countries of the world. Although not typically a fatal disease, severe trachoma is disabling, debilitating, and eventually leads to blindness. The Carter Center supports trachoma control in six African countries in partnership with trachoma-endemic communities, ministries of health, the Lions Clubs International Foundation, Pfizer Inc., and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Learn more about the Carter Center's Trachoma Control Program >

The national program estimates that 75 million people are at risk for trachoma, with 28 million people living in the 11 Nigerian states known to be endemic.

With support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, The Carter Center and the Nigeria Ministry of Health began working with state and local health authorities to implement trachoma control programs in Plateau and Nasarawa states in 2000. Since these states already supported Guinea worm eradication and river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis control efforts, the integration of trachoma control was a logical next step and began in 2009.

The Carter Center's Trachoma Control Program in Nigeria focuses on preventing trachoma through health education targeted to children and women in rural communities, the promotion of household latrines, and the mass distribution of antibiotics to treat active infections — three out of four components of the SAFE strategy for trachoma control.

Health education activities are conducted through school-based programs, and mobilization for trachoma control is performed in communities, marketplaces, churches, and mosques. The national program uses television and radio as its mass media outlets. In Plateau and Nasarawa states, health education is conducted by trained community-based health workers supported by The Carter Center, including village volunteers. In 2010, a total of 853 villages benefited from Carter Center-supported ongoing health education.

To increase the coverage of household sanitation, The Carter Center assists the Ministry of Health to promote household latrine construction in rural communities. Since 1999, the program has built more than 33,000 household latrines.

In 2010, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and SightSavers, the first mass treatment of blinding trachoma with azithromycin (Zithromax®, donated by Pfizer Inc.) was distributed in a total of 10 local government areas in Plateau, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kebbi states. The Carter Center and its partners delivered 715,507 treatments of azithromycin and tetracycline eye ointment.

Read the blog: First Treatment for Trachoma in Nigeria Goes to Young Patient>

Read the PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases article: Incremental Cost of Conducting Population-Based Prevalence Surveys for a Neglected Tropical Disease: The Example of Trachoma in 8 National Programs (PDF) >

Learn more about the Carter Center's Trachoma Control Program in Nigeria (in search result format) >