Abstract
The SAFE strategy (Surgery for trichiasis, mass treatment with Antibiotics to clear ocular Chlamydia trachomatis
infection, and Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement to
reduce transmission) is being used to eliminate trachoma as a public
health problem. Decisions on whether or not to implement the A, F, and E
components of SAFE are made on the basis of the prevalence of
trachomatous inflammation—follicular (TF) in 1–9-year-olds. TF has a
precise definition: at least five follicles, each of which is at least
0.5-mm diameter, in the central part of the upper tarsal conjunctiva.
Determining whether a follicle has a diameter ≥0.5mm is difficult using
magnifying loupes alone. We have developed an ultra-low-cost solution: a
follicle size guide that takes the form of a durable printed adhesive
sticker which can be fixed to graders’ thumb nails for direct size
comparison. This tool will be made available to health ministries free
of charge. It is anticipated to simplify grader training, increase
grader trainee pass rates, and prevent in-service diagnostic drift after
training is complete.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 399-402 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Ophthalmic Epidemiology |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 5-6 |
| Early online date | 1 Aug 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Nov 2018 |
Keywords
- Diagnosis
- Epidemiology
- Trachoma
Access to Document
- Solomon_2018_OE_Diagnosticinstrument_CC
Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.