Prevalence of trachoma in Ekpoma town, Edo state, Nigeria. Prevalence of trachoma in Ekpoma

      Аннотация: Trachoma is an infectious disease of the eye caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. This study aims at identifying possible control of trachoma infection in Ekpoma town. A total of 1434 persons were involved in the cross-sectional study. A structured questionnaire was administered to collect information on demographic data, duration of eye infection (if any), source of water supply and housing conditions. Thereafter conjunctival swabs were taken using sterile standard swab sticks which were later taken to the laboratory for analysis. A total of 733 (51.1%) males and 701 (48.9%) females were screened. 36 persons tested positive for trachoma. A prevalence of 2.5% was found for the study population. Housing condition played a significant role. Only 1 (2.8%) of the affected (trachoma) persons had adequate housing while (92.2%) had inadequate housing. For the non-affected, 229 (16.4%) had adequate housing while 1169 (83.6%) had inadequate housing. This difference was found to be statistically significant (X2=3.865; df = 1,P= 0.049). The age range 0-10 had the highest prevalence (41.1%) which shows that children are more affected.

Ключевые слова: Prevalence, trachoma