Overview
This report summarizes application of the SAFE strategy against trachoma during 2024. It includes estimates
of the global population at risk of trachoma blindness
based on district-by-district data submitted to WHO by
national programmes. Summarizing the epidemiological situation in this way is inherently complex because,
for any district, up to 3 serial estimates of prevalence may be valid at different times during a calendar year.
If reported in isolation, TF prevalence estimates from
impact surveys done after (but in the same calendar
year as) antibiotic treatment might (i) be interpreted as
indicating that the previous treatment was unjustified
and (ii) result in division-by-zero errors in calculations
of antibiotic coverage against need. To avoid these problems, the highest TF prevalence estimated for each
district in a calendar year (regardless of the date in the
year on which that estimate was valid) was used to
generate a rolling peak prevalence estimate for 1 January–31 December 2024; these figures were used
as the denominators for calculating intervention coverage. To provide the most up-to-date snapshot of progress towards global elimination of trachoma as a public
health problem, summaries based on district-level prevalence estimates held in the GET202013 database as of
21 April 2025 are also included (Table 1). The point-prevalence snapshot for 21 April 2025 can be compared with
that of 15 April 2024