Tropical Data and trachoma elimination (2025)

Trachoma is the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness. The Tropical Data service is playing a vital role in supporting countries to eliminate this painful and debilitating condition. 

We work with health ministries to support surveys in order to collect high-quality, standardised data on the prevalence of trachoma and other neglected tropical diseases. These data help countries prioritise and focus their disease elimination efforts in the right places.

So far, Tropical Data and its predecessor, the Global Trachoma Mapping Project, have supported surveys for trachoma in more than 50 countries globally. Of those, 15 countries have gone on to eliminate the disease. And we’re committed to helping many more countries reach this amazing milestone. 

India was validated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having eliminated trachoma in 2024. Dr. V. Rajshekhar, a Deputy Commissioner in India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said: ‘We are incredibly grateful to the Tropical Data team for the wonderful and timely support they provided throughout our surveys and dossier preparation. Their expertise and dedication were instrumental in achieving our trachoma elimination milestone. Without their support, this accomplishment would not have been possible.’

The Tropical Data team are also developing new services that can support countries on their journey to eliminating trachoma. For example, the team are currently piloting the inclusion of finger-prick blood testing, or ‘serological testing’, within the survey process. This method can help countries to understand transmission intensity of Chlamydia trachomatis, the bacteria that cause trachoma. This can be helpful because examination for clinical signs sometimes becomes less useful close to the elimination point.

Finger-prick blood testing can also be used to test for exposure or immunity to multiple infections at once, helping to reduce survey costs and increase efficiency. This type of integration across health programmes has been identified as a priority within the road map for Neglected Tropical Diseases 2021 – 2030, published by WHO.