Kathmandu, February 24:

The incidence of trachoma is 25.3 per cent in the country, according to a baseline survey conducted in three hill districts.

The districts picked up by the Nepal Trachoma Programme (NTP) included Rasuwa, Doti and Achham.

Trachoma, which involves inflammation of the granulation on the inner surface of the eyelids, has the highest incidence in Nepal.

Compare this with earlier survey in 16 of the 75 districts, with trachoma incidence put at 15.1 per cent. Both the surveys were conducted following the WHO guidelines. The battle, however, goes back to 1981, the year when a first survey found 6 per cent of the population suffering from the ailment. The resultant blindness added up 2.4 per cent of the total blindness cases.

Soon Swiss Red Cross, Helen Keller International along with NTP got down to the task of fighting out the menace, albeit in selected districts.

But a major onslaught was launched in 2002, with WHO at forefront and agencies like Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh and International Trachoma Initiatives (ITI) following suit. The Department of Drinking Water, too, was involved since battle against trachoma starts with clean drinking water. Clean faces and hands too help.

“It began as campaign revolving around SAFE, a term coined by WHO. Here S stands for surgery, A for antibiotic, F for face washing and E for environment. Vision alone can help retain vision,” said BB Thapa, Programme Director at NTP.

The subsequent phase has seen NTP conducting rapid appraisal in 37 additional districts. Add to it end-line survey conducted in Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Kailali and Kanchanpur after the implementation of the trachoma treatment programme.

The efforts have thrown up encouraging data with incidence of trachoma falling down to 0.9 per cent from 19.9 in Chitwan, 0.5 from 16 per cent in Nawalparasi, 1.02 from 23.1 per cent in Kailali and 4.5 per cent from 21 per cent in Kanchanpur.

Meanwhile, “vision for 2010” is to carry out 45676 surgeries in 10 districts, distributing desired medicine to 3.5m patients apart from ensuring that the children in the age group of 1-9 have clean faces in the same number of districts.