Trachoma

Summary

This Seminar paper in The Lancet focuses on trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. The World Health Organization’s surgery, antibiotics, facial cleanliness and environmental improvement strategy (SAFE) has brought considerable success over the last two decades, with 21 countries having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem by 2024. However, persistent and recrudescent active trachoma in some populations might challenge the success of the 2030 global elimination target. In such settings, novel, or more intensive, approaches must be promptly developed, tested and scaled up to accelerate elimination.