TT in Children

More and more children have begun to suffer from the effects of Trachoma in Nigeria. Children such as Fatima Abba and Zainab Kunami both 6 years old needed lid surgery to stop their eyes from going blind.

Trachoma is the world’s leading cause of blindness by an infectious bacteria called chlamydia trachomatis. Its spread is commonly found in rural communities where there are water shortages, poor personal hygiene, environmental sanitation and excess flies.

But, like in Fatima and Zainab’s case, as they were not treated, their eyelids began to pull in the eyelashes inward, causing scarring, so, as with every blink, the lashes scrape against the eye. This is the advanced form of trachoma called trichiasis.

To this day, HANDS has treated over 19,023,177 people for trachoma and conducted about 135,000  surgeries of both adults and children in the HANDS supported states.