First country in south-east Asia to eliminate Trachoma
May 25 , 2018 2369 days 1723 0
World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Nepal for having eliminated trachoma, a contagious bacterial infection of the eye.
It makes Nepal first country in WHO’s South-East Asia Region to defeat trachoma, world’s leading infectious cause of blindness.
The eye disease was the second leading cause of preventable blindness in Nepal in the 1980s
Trachoma is an eye disease caused by infection with bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis and the infection is particularly common in young children.
India had self-declared itself free from infective Trachoma in December 2017 after it met the goal of trachoma elimination as specified by WHO under its GET2020 (Global Elimination of Trachoma by the year 2020) program.