Trachoma Control Program – In the News

June 23, 2012
Nepal Sees End in Sight for Trachoma
This article was published in the June 23, 2012, issue of The Lancet.
Nepal is on track to eliminate the eye disease by 2014, according to a recent meeting of health experts. Amy Yee reports on the country's progress against trachoma from the city of Pokhara.

May 1, 2012
Award Recognizes Efforts of Trachoma Control Program in Eliminating Trachoma
Published on Healio.com.
Trachoma elimination programs have made considerable progress, but challenges still remain, according to Paul Emerson, PhD, director of the Trachoma Control Program at the Carter Center, Atlanta.

March 29, 2012
VOA's "InFocus" Segment Features Dr. Paul Emerson
VOA's health correspondent Linord Moudou discusses integrated strategies for controlling trachoma with Dr. Paul Emerson, director of the Carter Center's Trachoma Control Program.

June 1, 2011
Efficacy of Latrine Promotion on Emergence of Infection with Ocular Chlamydia Trachomatis After Mass Antibiotic Treatment: A Cluster-randomized Trial
Published in the June 2011 issue of International Health 3 (2011) 75– 84. Login required for full text.
Authors: Nicole E. Stoller, Teshome Gebre, Berhan Ayele, Mulat Zerihun, Yared Assefa, Dereje Habte, Zhaoxia Zhou, Travis C. Porco, Jeremy D. Keenan, Jenafir I. House, Bruce D. Gaynor, Thomas M. Lietman, Paul M. Emerson. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends environmental improvements such as latrine construction in the integrated trachoma control strategy, SAFE. We report a cluster-randomized trial assessing the effect of intensive latrine promotion on emergence of infection with ocular Chlamydia trachomatis after mass treatment with antibiotics.

May 4, 2011
Antiobiotics Reduce Child Mortality Rate
Published May 4, 2011 on CNN.com.
New studies suggest antibiotics used to treat an eye disease can save children's lives in Ethiopia. This video highlights Ethiopia's and the Center's trachoma effort and experts in Ethiopia.

Aug. 28, 2010
Int'l Organizations Hail Nation's Health Strategy, Success
Published Aug. 28, 2010, by Walta Information.
The Lions Clubs International, the Carter Center and the International Trachoma Initiative, working in collaboration to eliminate the blinding trachoma in the Amhara State, hailed Ethiopia's health strategy and its effective implementation particularly in improving  basic health care services, combating malaria and trachoma.

Nov. 2, 2009
Amhara National Regional Health Bureau and Lions-Carter Center Sightfirst Initiative Launch Third Integrated Malaria and Trachoma (Maltra) Campaign
The MalTra campaigns are a huge joint undertaking between the Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) and Lions-Carter Center Sightfirst Initiative held twice a year to tackle two of the major scourges of humanity in Amhara region: malaria and trachoma.

Oct. 29, 2009
Antibiotics for Eye Disease are Saving Ethiopia's Children
World Focus video report highlighting the new study that shows how an antibiotic treatment given to save children's eyesight is actually saving their lives.
Antibiotics administered for trachoma, a bacterial eye infection that is the world's leading preventable cause of blindness, are actually treating other ailments and reducing Ethiopia's high rates of child mortality. Producer Gary Strieker reports from Ethiopia's Amhara region where 60 percent of children suffer from trachoma.  Distributed to PBS stations nationwide.  (Run time: 4:27)

Sept. 1, 2009
In Ethiopia, Fighting Blindness May Prevent Deaths
This article was distributed by the Associated Press. 
A study in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association suggests an unintended benefit from efforts to wipe out trachoma, the world's leading preventable cause of blindness. Read the press release: Efforts to Control Blinding Trachoma Reduce Child Mortality in Ethiopia, JAMA Study Finds >>

Aug. 24, 2009
Public Radio International's "The World:"  Fighting Blindness in Ethiopia
Health problems that afflict the world's poor have received unprecedented attention in recent years. Governments and foundations alike are pouring billions of dollars into the fights against diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. But medical workers who focus on lesser known diseases say their efforts remain as difficult as ever. Reporter Odette Yousef of station WABE in Atlanta traveled to Ethiopia to follow the Carter Center's fight against trachoma, a leading cause of blindness in Africa.

Aug. 5, 2009
"Preventing Blindness" -- CNN's Impact Your World Showcases Carter Center Trachoma Control Program
Trachoma is the world's leading cause of "preventable" blindness, yet it costs 10 million people their eyesight.  The Carter Center, with partner organizations and community health workers in six African nations, is working to carry out simple solutions to prevent this disease affecting the world's poorest and most forgotten people. 

June 17, 2009
Carter Center Successfully Distributes Nine Million Doses of Antibiotics During Ethiopia MALTRA Weeks
With a population of approximately 17 million, the Amhara Region of Ethiopia is one of the most severely affected trachoma-endemic areas in the world. There are currently more than 15 million people at risk of infection and approximately 470,000 people visually impaired as a result of trichiasis, the blinding form of the disease. In addition, the region is susceptible to seasonal malaria epidemics, putting the majority of the population at risk for the potentially fatal disease.

June 15, 2009
Week-Long Series Highlights Center's Work to Prevent Trachoma During "MALTRA" Weeks in Ethiopia
Tune in June 15-19, 2009, to Morning Edition on WABE 90.1 FM, Atlanta's NPR station, as Odette Yousef—who traveled with The Carter Center to Ethiopia in April 2009—reports a five-part series on work to prevent trachoma and malaria there.   Beginning Monday, June 15, segments will be aired at 6:39 a.m. and again at 8:39 a.m. (EST).  Click here for more series information and for archived reports.  Listen live online at www.pba.org/.

Oct. 8, 2008
Ambitious Goal to End Blindness-Inducing Disease
Conventional wisdom says trachoma — the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide — can only be treated, not eliminated. But Teshome Gebre, The Carter Center's point man for trachoma control in Ethiopia, hopes to defy that wisdom. He is convinced that trachoma's blinding and debilitating effects can be stopped before the end of the next decade, the targeted goal for global trachoma elimination.

June 1, 2007
The Ethiopia Campaign (PDF)
Reprinted with permission from Smithsonian Magazine.
Jimmy Carter's 82 years had diminished neither his trademark smile, which could still disarm skeptics at 20 paces, nor his enthusiasm for the long chance, which had propelled this obscure peanut farmer to national prominence in the first place. That quixotic spirit took him this past February to an impoverished corner of Ethiopia, where he would announce his most audacious crusade yet: to eliminate malaria, an elusive and ever-changing killer, from this ancient African nation of 75 million people.

March 31, 2006
New York Times Feature on Trachoma: Preventable Disease Blinds Poor in Third World
"Preventable Disease Blinds Poor in Third World" by Celia W. Dugger is the third in The New York Times "On the Brink" series of articles about five diseases — polio, Guinea worm, blinding trachoma, measles and lymphatic filariasis — that are extinct in the developed world but stubbornly persistent in some poor nations. As the diseases hover on the brink of eradication, doctors and scientists face daunting obstacles as they struggle to finish the job.

Sept. 16, 2005
Houston Chronicle Feature: Visions of Health: Carters Work to End Scourge in Ethiopia 
Copyright 2005, Houston Chronicle, Posted with permission.

March 5, 2005
Latrine Program a Hit; Project Deals With Health, Gender
Feature article by Mark Bixler, Cox News Service.