Trachoma, an Old Eye Infection - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Trachoma is an extremely old eye infection that has been very commonly known to all of mankind. This disease is quite severe in nature and after a long time of repeatedly getting infected, the inner part of the eyelid can become so scarred in such a severe fashion that the whole eyelid could actually turn inwards and cause the lashes to rub on the eyeball which results in the scarring of the front part of the eye- the cornea. If this infection is not treated repeatedly and timely, this infection can even lead to the development of an irreversible corneal opacities and eventually even blindness. The severity of this disease is clear from the fact that it was considered an epidemic and not only any infection outbreak. Trachoma is presently responsible for an overly large 3% of the total world’s blindness. This number, however, keeps varying because of socio-economic development effects and several different control programs put in place for curbing the threat of this disease.
In spite of several measures being placed, trachoma still widely carry its status of a hyperendemic in several of the extremely poor and very remote and poor rural areas in the continent of Asia, Africa, Australia, Central and South America and the Middle East. The patterns of active trachoma emerge majorly during early adulthood and during middle-ages. In hyperendemic areas, trachoma is most common in children who ate attending preschool and the rates of prevalence of trachoma are as high as 60-90%. It like most diseased has the potential to majorly affect the most vulnerable members of society and has a severe effect on children and women. Surprisingly, adult women as compared to men are at a huger risk of being affected by the complication that results in trachoma leading to eventual blindness. The major reason for this trend is that perhaps women spend greater amount of time with young children who are considered the major source of this heinous infection. ...Download file to see next pages Read More