Sightsavers is working tirelessly across Africa to identify and treat sufferers of trachoma. Thanks to the charity’s efforts, countries such as Ghana and Senegal are close to eliminating the blinding disease.
The British charity is part of an ambitious programme to rid the world of trachoma by 2020, and a crucial preliminary step is to map the areas where clusters of people have the active form of the disease. Surgery, antibiotic treatment and preventive measures can then be concentrated on the right districts in Africa and those parts of Asia and the Middle East still affected.
Trachoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness in the world and 41 million people are thought to have the active form. Repeated infections of follicles under the eyelid