As efforts to combat the trachoma disease that causes blindness intensify, Kenya and Tanzania have started a joint cross-border mass drug administration exercise.
The collaboration between the Kenyan and Tanzanian ministries of health exercise, which was introduced on Tuesday at the Olposimoru Center in the Narok West Sub County, is aimed at the cross-border pastoral Maa community that lives between the two East African neighbors.
The most effective way to decisively combat trachoma, according to Wycliffe Omondi, head of the ministry of health’s division of vector-borne and neglected tropical diseases, is still to coordinate drug administration across the two countries.
There are other options besides giving medication. Integrating additional measures, such as hygiene and environmental cleanliness, will greatly help in solving the issue.
I implore the community members to take the medication that the government is making a special effort to provide. Omondi said.
George Kambona, the manager of Tanzania’s NTD program, claims that the two nations’ prior attempts to address the issue on their own had not been as successful.
He said that the two countries’ present coordinated efforts will ensure that the great majority of the pastoral community is reached.
The Maa population moves along the shared border in search of grass for their cattle, according to Peter Otinda of Sight savers, one of the partners supporting the campaign.
This makes the synchronized cross-border exercise the most successful at reaching the targeted communities.
The five-day mass medicine administration will be done in four counties—Narok and Kajiado in Kenya, Longido and Ngorongoro in Tanzania—and will benefit an estimated 1,324,392 individuals.
Ngorongoro is projected to treat 228,360 patients, while Longido will focus on 161,367 more.
There will be 934,665 beneficiaries in Kenya, including 358,574 from Kajiado County and 576,091 from Narok.
If the spread of the trachoma-causing bacteria in Kenya and Tanzania is to be stopped, about 3,600,000 people must receive antibiotic therapy.
The latest WHO report indicates that trachoma prevalence is still around 6%, therefore the exercise is anticipated to aid in the planned overall trachoma elimination efforts.
Trachoma is an endemic disease in five counties in Kenya: West Pokot, Turkana, Baringo, Kajiado, and Narok.
Trachoma has already caused blindness in over 53,200 Kenyans, but because of the country’s constant Mass Drug Administration (MDA) efforts, the situation has improved noticeably.
The most common infectious cause of blindness worldwide is trachoma, which is one of the 20 Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) identified by the World Health Organization (WHO).