Blinding Trachoma A Disease of Poverty 英文参考文献.docVIP

Open access, freely available online Neglected Diseases Blinding Trachoma: A Disease of Poverty Pashtoon M. Kasi, Ahmed I. Gilani, Khabir Ahmad, Naveed Z. Janjua* T rachoma is almost exclusively a disease of poor families and communities living in developing countries. It accounts for 15% of blindness worldwide—around 6 million people [1]. Although the disease is avoidable, it continues to blind. With so few voices speaking out on behalf of people affected by trachoma, it remains a neglected public health issue. different stages of trachoma and noted trichiasis as one of its sequelae. So prevalent was the disease not so long ago that trachoma hospitals were established in many parts of Europe and America [5]. The disease then declined dramatically in what is now called the developed world, mainly because of socioeconomic development [4]. Transmission occurs from eye to eye via hands, clothing, and other fomites. Flies have been identi?ed as a major vector for the infection’s spread [6]. The presence of open latrines favors the vector population (Figure 2). Factors associated with trachoma include the extent to which the water supply is limited, the distance from the water source, the amount of water used for washing purposes, and overcrowding [7]. One case-control study in a Gambian village compared water use in 18 families having one or more active trachoma cases among the children with that in 16 trachoma-free families in the same village. The families with trachoma were found to use signi?cantly less water per person per day for washing children than did the control group [8]. Epidemiology Trachoma, a chronic keratoconjunctivitis, is caused by episodes of infection with Chlamydia trachomatis, an obligate intracellular bacterium. Only serovars A, B, Ba, and C are implicated in trachoma. Trachoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide [1]. According to the World Health Organization, currently 84 million people, mostly children, have active disease