Prevalence of trachomatous trichiasis in Australia: the National Eye Health Survey.

IMPORTANCE

Australia is the only developed country to still have pockets of endemic trachoma. The research provides up-to-date, population-based prevalence data of later complications of trachoma amongst a national sample of Indigenous adults.

BACKGROUND

To report the prevalence of trachomatous trichiasis (TT) in Indigenous Australians aged 40 years and older.

DESIGN

Population-based cross-sectional study.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 1738 (41% male) Indigenous Australians aged 40 years or older, living amongst 30 randomly selected Australian sites, stratified by remoteness.

METHODS

Anterior segment examination was performed and trachoma grading for the presence of TT and corneal opacification (CO) was conducted using the WHO (WHO) simplified grading system.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Prevalence of TT.

RESULTS

A total of three (0.17%) participants had TT, and there were no confirmed cases of trachomatous CO in the NEHS. All three participants with TT were female and aged 40 years or older. Although they had likely spent their childhoods in more remote areas, two of the three confirmed cases resided in an urban and outer regional area at the time of their examinations.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Our data are in line with ongoing national trachoma surveillance reports that suggest the prevalence of late sequences of trachoma appear to be decreasing in Australia.