Ninety-eight percent of households touched by blinding disease in Jonglei county – study
By Daniel Van Oudenaren
October 4, 2008 (WASHINGTON) – Active trachoma, a preventable disease that causes blindness, occurred in at least one member of 98 percent of households surveyed in Ayod county of Jonglei state, Southern Sudan, according to a study based on a November 2006 survey recently published in the scientific journal “Neglected Tropical Diseases.”
Trachoma is a worldwide leading cause of preventable blindness and is caused by a kind of bacteria. It can spread from person to person due to discharge from the eyes, and is more prevalent in areas with flies, lack of water and poor sanitation.
Repeated infections lead to scarring of the upper eyelid, which then allows eyelashes to scrape the front of the eye. The study found that in 33 percent of households at least one person suffered from trichiasis, this extreme stage of the disease.
Without corrective surgery to the eyelids the damage can become irreversible. Many victims contract the disease as children but are not blinded until they are adults.
If antibiotics are available the disease can be controlled early on and it can also be prevented through facial cleanliness and improved sanitation. The authors recommended corrective eyelid surgery for 5,080 people in Ayod county, distributing antibiotics to all 70,000 residents, improving water supply for an estimated 7,010 to 8,580 households and constructing approximately 9,560 latrines to achieve complete sanitation coverage.
Previous surveys in 12 other areas of Southern Sudan corroborate the researchers’ claim that southern Sudan suffers from “an unreasonably high burden of trachoma.”
Researchers surveyed 2,335 people from 392 households. The report concluded, “trachoma is an unnecessary public health problem in Ayod.”
The authors of the study, Jonathan King, Jeremiah Ngondi, Gideon Gatpan, Ben Lopidia, Steve Becknell, and Paul Emerson represent institutions in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, Cambridge, UK, and Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan.
Ayod county is an oil-rich part of Jonglei, where most of the residents are ethnically Nuer.
The World Health Organization (WHO) provides detailed guidance to health officials who might wish to run a trachoma control program. According to WHO, “in nearly all trachoma-endemic countries, there are too few ophthalmologists and a large backlog of TT (trachoma trichiasis) patients. As a result, most programmes train nonophthalmologists as TT surgeons.”
A national report released in Khartoum in 2005 found that trachoma accounted for 18 percent of the 500,000 cases of blindness in Sudan.
Another blinding disease, onchocerciasis (OV) or “river blindness,” which is caused by worms, puts 4.1 million at risk in southern Sudan, according to a Government of Southern Sudan report released in February. Sudan Tribune reported cases of OV in the area around Wulu, Lakes state, Sept. 3.
(ST)
Mr Famous Big_Logic_Boy
Ninety-eight percent of households touched by blinding disease in Jonglei county – study
Simple as morning tea,from cattle to junglese people.So what they have to do is sanitation and hygienic.Although a moron will understand as an insult but a genuine will appreciate this view.
Ajang Aguer Pageer
Ninety-eight percent of households touched by blinding disease in Jonglei county – study
I cann’t help laughing about the ludicrous statement below:
“Another blinding disease, onchocerciasis (OV) or “river blindness,” which is caused by worms, puts 4.1 million at risk in southern Sudan, according to a Government of Southern Sudan report released in February. Sudan Tribune reported cases of OV in the area around Wulu, Lakes state, Sept. 3.”
The estimate of South Sudan is put below 4 million according to the census carried out in Sudan this year.But the number of people whose lives are being endangered by the disease in an area less than half of the occupied land of Southern Sudan is more than the population of Southern Sudan.So, how credible will the results of that census be if the estimate will reflect the “real figure”?Also,what will be the explanation scientifically whether in terms of biological production,War and population modelling?Those are the question the questions the NCP criminals should think about their answers before they release their doctored census results.Just for sympathy, let this be one of their strong points,”1.Only the southerners died during the war and the remaining ones were and are not producing.2….”