The road to elimination

The leading cause of preventable blindness

Trachoma is an excruciating and blinding eye infection that causes someone to go blind roughly every 15 minutes. It’s easily treatable with antibiotics, good facial hygiene and sanitation. If the infection’s caught in time, the effects of even advanced trachoma (trichiasis) can be reversed with a straightforward operation, preventing permanent blindness. But often the people most in need of treatment are the hardest to reach, because they live in remote areas with little or no healthcare provision.

Mali is on the brink of beating trachoma – it’s working towards a target of eliminating the disease by 2015. But conflict in the country threatens to derail progress. The next year will be a race against time to reach everyone who needs treatment and ensure what’s been achieved so far isn’t undone. Thanks to a generous grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and co-funded by the IZUMI Foundation, Sightsavers is working to address the huge backlog of surgeries in five regions. Working in collaboration with Helen Keller International and The Carter Center, together we will vastly increase the likelihood of Mali reaching its 2015 elimination target.

MOTOrBIKES AND MOBILE PHONES

The programme provides surgeons with motorbikes so they can travel to remote communities delivering treatment to people who might not otherwise be able to access care. They’re trained to go door to door, identifying people in need of trichiasis surgery.

The grants have given us a fantastic opportunity to pilot a new programme for tackling trachoma using mobile phones, or mHealth. The surgeons send information via text message, reporting on the areas where trachoma is most prevalent, the number of people they screen, the surgeries they carry out, and the number of follow-up consultations they provide. Each text message goes directly to the Ministry of Health’s mHealth database. The data enables us to deliver treatment where it’s needed most, particularly in the more remote regions.

Patients identified as having trichiasis are given surgery then and there, often in their own homes. The operation takes about 20 minutes but the effects last a lifetime…

Kourani

Kourani is 65 and lives in the village of N‘Korobougou. She suffers from several illnesses, including leprosy, so she’s unable to work. Trachoma made her life even harder, but when she was visited by a mobile surgeon her life was changed. After the operation she was really happy and grateful, and blessed all the health workers who had helped her.

Salimata

The agony of trachoma alone is not easy to endure but Salimata also had cataract in both her eyes, making her vision blurred and life extremely difficult. She had been living with these severe eye conditions for more than two years. Salimata grows okra (a common food in rural areas) for a living. Without this work, she would have to spend money buying it from other growers at a great cost to her and her family. This is why her sight is so important; without it she would not be able to earn a living and contribute to her community. Shortly after her operation Salimata was able to go back to work harvesting okra in the fields.

She told us: “I want to make all the best wishes for those who are committed to help us to save our eyes.”

Tenimba

Tenimba suffered with itchy and painful eyes for 10 years. At 70 she’s still working hard gardening and cultivating peanuts to help her family, so her eyesight is very important to her. “I have not reached the age of staying at home doing nothing, but I am compelled to because this disease makes me tired, especially when the pain increases. I can barely see during these times.” After the operation, Tenimba felt nothing but relief and she had no interest in putting her feet up; she couldn’t wait to remove her bandages so she could sweep the courtyard and be useful again to her family.

YEDIE

Yedie is a 64-year-old widow who had trichiasis surgery about a year ago. Since then she’s been able to return to work and earn an income, and now she encourages others who are suffering from trachoma to have the operation.

“When the team came to the village a year ago, I went to the healthcare centre to meet them. I really wanted to end this sickness. I agreed to surgery, especially after they told me that this sickness could cause blindness. For the first five days I had some pain but after that everything got back in order. One month later I went back to work.”

BOUBACAR: A health hero

Although the work is hard, surgeon Boubacar gets enormous satisfaction from his work; from being sure he’s stopping people going blind. And word is spreading about the programme:

“When we started to work here, only a couple of people per week accepted to be checked; people didn’t trust us. Now we consult dozens of people per day and people come to us because they were recommended by other patients. That makes us feel proud and continue to work happily.”

Find out more about our partnership with Conrad N. Hilton here