A new paper in PLOS NTDs establishes the global distribution and burden of trachoma in Africa, estimating that 129.4 million people live in areas of Africa confirmed to be trachoma endemic.
A new paper published today in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases establishes the global distribution and burden of trachoma in Africa, estimating that 129.4 million people live in areas of Africa confirmed to be trachoma endemic. The distribution of trachoma continues to be focused in East and West Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and a few endemic countries in Central Sub-Saharan Africa.
The paper uses data included in GAHI's sister website, the Global Atlas of Trachoma (GAT), to describe the geographical distribution and burden of trachoma in Africa. The paper confirms the GAT provides the most updated and comprehensive summary of the burden of trachoma in that continent, and highlights where future mapping is required. The GAT is therefore an important planning tool for scale-up and surveillance of trachoma control.
The article is available in our Publications and on the PLOS NTDs website.
Launched in 2011, data in the GAT comes from country reports, published research and expert opinion. In addition to these sources and to fill remaining knowledge gaps, the Global Trachoma Mapping Project (GTMP) was launched in fall 2012 to identify where people are living at risk of the disease and intervention is needed. You can read more about the GTMP in our recent blog post by the International Trachoma Initiative's GIS data manager, Rebecca Mann Fluekiger.