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The elimination of blinding trachoma in Ghana through improving access to water and latrines

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conference contribution
posted on 2018-02-12, 15:08 authored by Agatha Aboe, Simon Bush, H. Faal
The cause of trachoma is Chlamydia trachomatis, but its main determinant is poverty. especially low water and latrine coverage. The trachoma global control programme strategy is S.A.F.E.: Surgery and Antibiotics – medical interventions; Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement – social interventions. Over a ten year period, 2000-2010, the Ghana Trachoma Control Programme has reduced the prevalence of trachoma from 9.7-16.1% to less than 2.8% in endemic districts. Through increased water coverage from a low 6.67% to a high 96.3%, and latrine coverage from a low 1% to a high 30.8% at district level as part of a comprehensive SAFE strategy, Ghana is set to achieve the elimination of blinding trachoma, the first sub-Saharan country to do so. The strong collaboration between the health, education and WATSAN sectors within the National Trachoma Taskforce has demonstrated how a disease of poverty can be successfully eliminated and contributions made to the MDGs.

History

School

  • Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

Research Unit

  • Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)

Published in

WEDC Conference

Citation

ABOE, A. ... et al, 2011. The elimination of blinding trachoma in Ghana through improving access to water and latrines. IN: Shaw, R.J. (ed). The future of water, sanitation and hygiene in low-income countries - Innovation, adaptation and engagement in a changing world: Proceedings of the 35th WEDC International Conference, Loughborough, UK, 6-8 July 2011, 4pp.

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© WEDC, Loughborough University

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2011

Notes

This is a conference paper.

Other identifier

WEDC_ID:11049

Language

  • en

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    WEDC 35th International Conference

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