5 July 2011
Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide and affects millions of people in poor and rural regions. The Partnership for the Rapid Elimination of Trachoma (PRET) is a cluster randomized control trial taking place in three countries: The Gambia, Tanzania and Niger. It aims to answer two main questions:
- The WHO recommends that districts where the prevalence of follicular trachoma is 10% or more in children aged 1 to 9 years be mass treated with azithromycin annually for at least three years. After three years you re-assess the prevalence then decide whether or not you need to continue mass treatment. We are looking at whether you actually need to treat every three years or whether less frequent treatment is possible.
- The WHO recommends that mass treatment coverage should be 80% or more. The PRET trial is providing the evidence to support this recommendation by comparing 80% treatment coverage with an attempt at obtaining 90%.
The data gathered will be used to better manage the scarce resources that are available for trachoma control.
| Alias | PI – 1 | PI – 2 | Start | End | Ext. | Donors |
| Partnership for rapid elimination of Trachoma – PRET | Sarah Burr | Robin Bailey | – | – | – | LSHTM, BMGF |