Thylefors B, Négrel A D, Pararajasegaram R
Organisation Mondiale de la Santé, Genève, Suisse.
Rev Int Trach Pathol Ocul Trop Subtrop Sante Publique. 1992;69:107-14.
World Health Organization (W.H.O.) carried out a survey recently. This survey consisted in a questionnaire to some of its Member States to try to define the importance and world distribution of trachoma. The answers which have been sent by ocular health advisers and/or persons in charge of national ophthalmological institutes showed a systemic lack of significant data to be used for planning or for epidemiological surveillance. Nevertheless, the analysis of this survey seems to lead to the conclusion that trachoma is not still the main cause of blindness in some countries who used to be famous because of an important endemicity. However, trachoma is still a real ocular health and public health problem in numerous other countries, mainly in rural areas and- or areas which are away from socio-sanitary development areas. To have a better quality concerning epidemiological data and to obtain an easier regularity in their collecting, W.H.O. Program for the Blindness Prevention proposed a simplified coding system of trachoma and its complications (S.S.C.T.C.). If this system was accepted by numerous countries it would allow: the use of a simple, reliable and cheap tool to collect epidemiological informations which would constitute an help to take decisions to be able to, give a second start to epidemiological surveillance of trachoma, to have a better idea of the localization of endemic centres of the disease and of this impact on population, to define the needs concerning collective and individual medical and surgical treatments.
世界卫生组织（WHO）最近开展了一项调查。该调查包括向其一些成员国发放问卷，试图确定沙眼的重要性和全球分布情况。眼科健康顾问和/或国家眼科机构负责人寄回的答案显示，系统性地缺乏可用于规划或流行病学监测的重要数据。然而，对这项调查的分析似乎得出这样的结论：在一些过去因沙眼流行严重而闻名的国家，沙眼已不再是失明的主要原因。然而，在许多其他国家，沙眼仍然是一个切实的眼部健康和公共卫生问题，主要存在于农村地区和/或远离社会卫生发展区域的地区。为了提高流行病学数据的质量，并更轻松地定期收集这些数据，世界卫生组织预防失明计划提出了一种沙眼及其并发症的简化编码系统（SSCTC）。如果该系统被众多国家接受，将能够：使用一种简单、可靠且廉价的工具来收集流行病学信息，这将有助于做出决策，从而能够重新启动沙眼的流行病学监测，更好地了解该疾病流行中心的位置及其对人群的影响，确定集体和个人医疗及手术治疗的需求。
