Mexico has reportedly become the third country in the world and the first in the Americas to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem, according to an announcement from the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to WHO, trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide, affecting poor, isolated populations in 41 countries around the world. In the Americas, trachoma is still endemic in Brazil, Guatemala, and Colombia.
In Mexico, the disease has reportedly been endemic in 246 communities in five municipalities in the state of Chiapas, affecting a total of 146,207 people. Actions to combat trachoma were reportedly strengthened in 2004 with the creation of the Trachoma Prevention and Control Program of the Ministry of Health of Chiapas and the strengthening of the WHO SAFE strategy.
Through specific strategy and specially-trained technical personnel to combat trachoma, cases of the disease were reportedly reduced from 1,794 in 2004 to zero cases in 2016.
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Source: World Health Organization