Prevalence of trachoma in six districts of Kenya.

Abstract

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of active trachoma in children aged one to 9 years and potentially blinding trachoma in adults aged 15 years and older in 6 known trachoma-endemic districts in Kenya. Design: Community based survey, conducted between 16 June and 17 July 2004. Setting: Six known trachoma endemic districts in Kenya (Samburu, Narok, West Pokot, Kajiado Baringo and Meru North). Subjects: A total of 6982 children aged one to 9 years and 8045 adults aged 15 years and older were randomly selected in a 2-stage random cluster sampling method: 20 sub-locations (clusters) per district and 3 villages per sub-location were randomly selected. Eligible children and adults were enumerated and examined for signs of trachoma. Results: Blinding trachoma was found to be a public health problem in all the surveyed districts. Active trachoma was a district wide public health problem in four districts (Samburu, Narok, West Pokot and Kajiado) and only in some of the sub-locations of the other 2 (Baringo and Meru North). Conclusions: There is a need for district trachoma control programmes preferably using the WHO recommended SAFE strategy in all the surveyed districts. Extrapolation of these survey results to the entire country could not be justified. There is also a need to survey the remaining 12 suspected endemic districts in Kenya.