Blinding trachoma among refugees: complicating social disaster

• Published in: Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine
• Main Authors: Yeshigeta Gelaw, Aemero Abateneh
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2015
• Subjects: Trachoma; Trichiasis; Blindness; Low vision; Refugees; Ethiopia; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Biology (General); QH301-705.5; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2221-1691(15)30155-6; https://doaj.org/article/8fbb932b62fd4954966ffbb09cc13f61

Objective:: To determine the prevalence of blinding trachoma among refugees in South Western Ethiopia. Methods:: A cross-sectional outreach clinic based descriptive study was conducted on 1 054 refugees in Southwest Ethiopia. A basic eyelid and cornea examination for signs of trachoma was done by using 2.5× binocular magnifying loupe. The findings were classified by using the World Health Orgnization simplified trachoma grading system and data were analyzed by using SPSS version 16.0. Results:: A total of 1 054 refugee patients were examined for trachoma, 179 (16.98%) of them had clinical signs of trachoma. About 6 (3.35%) patients had active trachoma with trachomatous trichiasis (TT), 47 (26.26%) patients had TT only and the rest 126 (70.39%) patients had TT with trachomatous corneal opacity. All of the trachoma patients had blinding trachoma (TT with or without trachomatous corneal opacity), and about 60.89% of them had visual impairment. Blinding trachoma was significantly more common among females, patients in age group of 16-59 years, married patients, illiterates and Fugnido camp settlers (P<0.05). Conclusions:: There is a very high burden of blinding trachoma among refugees. Urgent surgical intervention is needed to prevent blindness and low vision in the study subjects, and targeted regular outreach-based eye care service should be commenced.