What is the Trachoma?
Trachoma is an infectious disease of the conjunctiva and cornea caused by a bacterium: the Chlamydia trachomatis. This pathological condition has numerous clinical manifestations resulting from active or previous infection.
Trachoma is an endemic disease, but it mainly affects the populations of developing countries (such as North Africa and India); it is mainly transmitted through contact with tear secretions and infected hands, contaminated clothing and insects. The infectious agent can also be transmitted by fecal contamination (it is endemic where hygiene standards are poor). The clinical syndrome of trachoma can be effectively limited by the spread of antibiotic therapy.
Causes
Trachoma infection is caused by the transmission of Chlamydia trachomatis (type Chlamidia), a gram-negative bacterium, which can also cause sexually transmitted infection (see article on chlamydia). Environmental risk factors are water shortages, flies, poor sanitation and overcrowding of homes. Poverty-stricken populations are at greater risk for the spread of the disease.
Trachoma is spread through interpersonal contact with secretions from the eyes, nose, or throat of an infected person. Transmission of the infection can also occur by direct contact with contaminated objects (such as clothing, towels, etc.). In developing countries, flies and midges act as vectors for the transmission of the infectious agent (they feed on of eye secretions).
