Conclusions & Recommendations

TEC notes with concern the impact of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) budget cuts, resulting in the potential loss of over 14 million trachoma treatments and hundreds of thousands of trichiasis surgeries in the next year jeopardizing progress towards trachoma elimination in impacted areas.

TEC recommends that ITI Management send a letter to the Niger national program:
- congratulating the national program managers for their work to address challenges identified during the 2019 program assessment
- commending the program for their adaptability and flexibility in the face of insecurity

TEC encourages the MOH to develop a plan to use any remaining in-country Zithromax® inventory for ongoing TT surgeries, should the impact survey in Dinguiraye indicate that further MDA is not needed.

TEC congratulates the Neglected Tropical Disease Program of Côte d’Ivoire on the operations research in 2 evaluation units to better understand the trachoma epidemiology in that country, given high baseline prevalence in some districts and universally low or absent TT. TEC would like to invite the NTDP to present these data at TEC 25 should these data be available.

TEC notes with concern that very few trichiasis surgeries have been conducted to date and encourages donors to ensure they are supporting the full SAFE strategy.

TEC recommends that ITI have a discussion with the resident WR, WHO-HQ, and the national program to develop a consensus of how to best move forward with elimination efforts.

Additionally, prevalence data in Basse-Kotto are ‘stale’, and, if funding can be identified, new survey data would be informative before any further MDAs are considered.

TEC noted with concern that funding & technical assistance is urgently needed to support the trachoma program in Central African Republic. TEC also recognized the need to develop a broader funding and partner base if elimination in CAR is to be achieved.

TEC recommends that ITI follow up to better understand the situation in refugee camps in the Lake Chad Basin and whether addressing these populations is included in the national program’s plans.

TEC recognizes the hardship placed on Zambia’s trachoma program from the budget cuts by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), leaving a funding gap for 2021 interventions (including MDA in three districts, trachoma surveillance surveys in 17 districts, and one trachoma impact survey) and 2022 interventions (MDA in seven districts and eight trachoma impact surveys).