The global burden of trichiasis in 2016

• Published in: PLoS neglected tropical diseases Vol. 13; no. 11; p. e0007835
• Main Authors: Flueckiger, Rebecca M, Courtright, Paul, Abdala, Mariamo, Abdou, Amza, Abdulnafea, Zaid, Al-Khatib, Tawfik K, Amer, Khaled, Amiel, Olga Nelson, Awoussi, Sossinou, Bakhtiari, Ana, Batcho, Wilfried, Bella, Assumpta Lucienne, Bennawi, Kamal Hashim, Brooker, Simon J, Chu, Brian K, Dejene, Michael, Dezoumbe, Djore, Elshafie, Balgesa Elkheir, Elvis, Aba Ange, Fabrice, Djouma Nembot, Omar, Fatma Juma, François, Missamou, François, Drabo, Garap, Jambi, Gichangi, Michael, Goepogui, André, Hammou, Jaouad, Kadri, Boubacar, Kabona, George, Kabore, Martin, Kalua, Khumbo, Kamugisha, Mathias, Kebede, Biruck, Keita, Kaba, Khan, Asad Aslam, Kiflu, Genet, Yibi, Makoy, Mackline, Garae, Macleod, Colin, Manangazira, Portia, Masika, Michael P, Massangaie, Marilia, Mduluza, Takafira, Meno, Nabicassa, Midzi, Nicholas, Minnih, Abdallahi Ould, Mishra, Sailesh, Mpyet, Caleb, Muraguri, Nicholas, Mwingira, Upendo, Nassirou, Beido, Ndjemba, Jean, Nieba, Cece, Ngondi, Jeremiah, Olobio, Nicholas, Pavluck, Alex, Phiri, Isaac, Pullan, Rachel, Qureshi, Babar, Sarr, Boubacar, Seiha, Do, Chávez, Gloria Marina Serrano, Sharma, Shekhar, Sisaleumsak, Siphetthavong, Southisombath, Khamphoua, Stevens, Gretchen, Woldendrias, Andeberhan Tesfazion, Traoré, Lamine, Turyaguma, Patrick, Willis, Rebecca, Yaya, Georges, Yeo, Souleymane, Zambroni, Francisco, Zhao, Jialiang, Solomon, Anthony W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01.11.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adults; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biology and Life Sciences; Blindness; Child welfare; Computer and Information Sciences; Confidence intervals; Corrections; Countries; Data; Disease control; Disease prevention; Earth Sciences; Epidemiology; Estimates; Female; Geographical distribution; Global Health; Humans; Hygiene; Male; Management services; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Population; Prevalence; Public health; Research and Analysis Methods; Resource allocation; Sex; Social Sciences; Task forces; Trachoma; Trichiasis - epidemiology; Tropical diseases; Young Adult; Nigeria; Mali; Ethiopia; Atlanta Georgia; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Niger; Tanzania; Sudan; Kenya; Addis Ababa Ethiopia; Mozambique; Burkina Faso; Malawi; Guatemala; Zimbabwe; Nepal
• ISSN: 1935-2735; 1935-2727; 1935-2735
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007835

Trichiasis is present when one or more eyelashes touches the eye. Uncorrected, it can cause blindness. Accurate estimates of numbers affected, and their geographical distribution, help guide resource allocation. We obtained district-level trichiasis prevalence estimates in adults for 44 endemic and previously-endemic countries. We used (1) the most recent data for a district, if more than one estimate was available; (2) age- and sex-standardized corrections of historic estimates, where raw data were available; (3) historic estimates adjusted using a mean adjustment factor for districts where raw data were unavailable; and (4) expert assessment of available data for districts for which no prevalence estimates were available. Internally age- and sex-standardized data represented 1,355 districts and contributed 662 thousand cases (95% confidence interval [CI] 324 thousand-1.1 million) to the global total. Age- and sex-standardized district-level prevalence estimates differed from raw estimates by a mean factor of 0.45 (range 0.03-2.28). Previously non- stratified estimates for 398 districts, adjusted by ×0.45, contributed a further 411 thousand cases (95% CI 283-557 thousand). Eight countries retained previous estimates, contributing 848 thousand cases (95% CI 225 thousand-1.7 million). New expert assessments in 14 countries contributed 862 thousand cases (95% CI 228 thousand-1.7 million). The global trichiasis burden in 2016 was 2.8 million cases (95% CI 1.1-5.2 million). The 2016 estimate is lower than previous estimates, probably due to more and better data; scale-up of trichiasis management services; and reductions in incidence due to lower active trachoma prevalence.