# Kebele Elimination of Trachoma for Ocular Health

> **NIH NIH UG1** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2022 · $842,897

## Abstract

7PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The World Health Organization (WHO) Trachoma Program aims to eliminate trachoma as a public health
concern by 2020—strictly speaking, this would be a control program, as infection is not being eliminated. The
WHO recommends three to five annual mass azithromycin distributions to districts with measured prevalence
of follicular trachoma (TF) above 10%, before re-assessment. However, despite as much as a decade of
annual mass azithromycin distribution, TF prevalence in some districts of Amhara, Ethiopia remains over 25%.
Elimination of infection, defined as reduction to zero in the incidence of infection in a specific defined
geographic area, is feasible and may actually be more sustainable than control, as it may be less likely for
infection to return in a community that has achieved zero new infections. Here, we propose to test two
alternative antibiotic-based strategies for intensive targeting of core groups to achieve elimination at the kebele
(administrative unit consisting of ~15 villages, or development teams) level. We propose a three-arm cluster
randomized trial to test whether quarterly treatment of (1) all children aged 0-9 in the kebele plus annual mass
azithromycin distribution or (2) all children aged 0-9 in the kebele with ocular C. trachomatis infection by PCR
plus annual mass azithromycin distribution results in lower prevalence of ocular chlamydia and elimination in
the kebele compared to (3) WHO-recommended annual mass azithromycin distribution alone. The results of
this trial are expected to lead to evidence of alternative antibiotic-based strategies that may more reliably lead
to complete elimination in geographic areas larger than a village.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10441068
- **Project number:** 5UG1EY028088-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** THOMAS M LIETMAN
- **Activity code:** UG1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $842,897
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-30 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10441068

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10441068, Kebele Elimination of Trachoma for Ocular Health (5UG1EY028088-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10441068. Licensed CC0.

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