Trachoma

Summary Trachoma is the main cause of infectious blindness in the world. Approximately 232 million people live in trachoma endemic areas and at risk of being infected. Australia is the only developed country where trachoma remains endemic, with the Indigenous communities suffering the heaviest burden of disease. As part of the World Health Organization (WHO) GET2020 Alliance, the Australian government has invested large sums of money in the combat of thracoma as a public health concern. By adopting the SAFE (surgery, antibiotics, facial cleaning and environmental improvement) strategy recommended by the WHO, Australia adjusted the recommendations to the country needs and developed its own guidelines to tackle the different stages of the disease.…

Referred to as “a forgotten disease of a forgotten people” by Paul Emerson, Director of the Trachoma Control Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia; trachoma is a hyperendemic of preventable blindness in the world. Trachoma is an ocular infection caused by intercellular parasite Chlamydia trachomatis. It thrives in dirty atmospheres with close proximities since the disease is spread by contact of infected eye and nose discharge through hands, towels and flies. Most of the risk…

Ms. Sanders is the Associate Director of the trachoma program at The Carter Center (TCC). She began her presentation by discussing her career and like previous presenters, she did not have a set path into public health. Ms. Sanders studied political science as an undergraduate student, then she worked on HIV in the Peace Corps, and then she began working for the Carter Center. Ms. Sanders then worked for NATO for a while, but then she went back to The Carter Center and began her work on…

pneumoniae, that causes a type of pneumonia, C.psittaci, that causes psittacosis and C.trachomatis that causes various diseases such as trachoma, inclusion conjunctivitis and nongonococcal urethritis. Chlamydial infections are spread by either direct contact or by inhalation of aerosols. C.trachomatis is spread by direct contact with infected secretions. Humans that are infected act as reservoirs. Engelkirk mentions it is also “spread by flies serving as mechanical vectors”…

plasma cells, and eosinophilic invasion. Finally, the release of cytokines and interferons by the infected epithelial cells which initiate the inflammatory cascade (Qureshi, 2016). Chlamydial infection commonly manifest as genital tract as mucopurulent cervicitis and pelvic inflammatory disease in females and urethritis and epididymitis in males. Writing about the clinical presentation of chlamydia, Qureshi (2016) state “C trachomatis can be subdivided into 18 serologically variant strains as…

tract which can cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). In contrast, more than 75% of infected men show signs and symptoms similar to gonorrhea which is painful urination and pus discharge from the penis (Bauman, 2014). Infection of chlamydia may cause inflammation of the epididymis (epididymitis) and inflammation of the testis (orchitis) which can both lead to sterility. When newborns are infected, an eye disease called trachoma develops which is the leading cause of nontraumatic blindness in…

The different genera are based on different intracellular inclusions, susceptibility, composition and disease production. C trachomas causes infections in the eye, genitalia, or respiratory tract. These include trachoma, inclusion conjunctivitis, lymphogranuloma venereum, urethritis, cervicitis, salpingitis and pneumonitis. Most of the time this disease is underreported because people can go months to years before they realize that they have been infected. The problems and devastating outcomes…

Year(1990), Humanist of the Year(1991) and Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists Medal (1993). The most extraordinary aspects of Professor Hollows’s humanitarian work occurred in late 1968. He happened to meet two senior Aboriginal men at his eye clinic in Watti Creek. He was shocked by how poor their living conditions were and how appalling eye health was in outback Aboriginal communities. He was horrified when he discovered a condition called ‘Trachoma’ which had begun to disappear…

Johanna Mansfield Sullivan or better known as Anne Sullivan is a teacher and instructor famous for teaching Helen how to sign and communicate. Sullivan was born April 14, 1866 in Agawam Massachusetts. Her parents were poor immigrants that did not know how to read or write. When she was five, she contracted a disease called trachoma. This disease caused painful infections in her eyes and made her blind. Three years later, her mother died and her father left the children because he thought he…

I was very nervous on the two-weeks trip to the “land of opportunity”. Once I got there, I admired the first classes’ clothing and expensive jewelry. Then, a small boat took us to Ellis Island to get inspected. It was a long process, and I was starting to get hungry. I had very little food to last me the whole inspection. First, I walked up the steps nervously with doctors looking at me. Then, they asked me questions (which I was already prepared because I was practicing on the ride there).…