Avoidable blindness: development and implementation of surveillance system for trachoma in post-endemic Countries. How the World Health Organization supports its member States

Trachoma is still the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 40.6 million people are estimated to be suffering from active trachoma, and 8.2 million are estimated to have trichiasis. In 1997, the World Health Organization established the WHO Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma, as a public health problem, by the year 2020. The impressive progress in attaining elimination of blinding trachoma made by several endemic countries showed the need to set up the surveillance system in order to monitor and control coverage achievements avoiding dispersal of skills, competences, and support. The main objective of this project was to support the development of a methodology for post-endemic trachoma surveillance to reveal a possible trachoma re-emergence but also to have in place one of the solicited element to apply for the certification process. The choice to elaborate a methodology, more than a method, is a clear evidence of the WHO approach to Member States needs. This gives countries the opportunity to exploit the pre-existing structures and activities and to apply the indicators in the form they find the most appropriate to their cultural, geographic, economic, and social context. Two countries are developing the National Plan for the surveillance system for trachoma in post-endemic area with the support of WHO.