Northern and Upper West regions are trachoma-endemic areas -

Tamale (Northern Region), 14th April ?99 ? A Ministry of Health (MOH) survey has identified Northern and Upper West regions as trachoma-endemic areas. Trachoma is a major cause of blindness.

A survey carried out at Daboya in the West Gonja district of the Northern region in 1996 revealed that 23.6 per cent of the people have "active trachoma", which makes the disease a public health problem.

Dr Sylvester Anemana, Northern Regional Director of Health Services who announced this at the opening of a four-day trachoma assessment training workshop in Tamale on Monday, said further surveys are needed in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions to determine trachoma prevalence and control.

The four-day workshop organised by the MOH for 25 eye nurses from the Northern and Upper West regions will discuss "community identification and mobilisation for trachoma", "examine the eye for trachoma" and "trachoma grading and reliability test". Dr Anemana said under the medium-term health strategy, trachoma and other endemic diseases would be drastically controlled.

Trachoma alone afflicts about 150 million people, he said, and expressed the hope that through the active participation of community health volunteers, the disease can be controlled in Ghana