India is now free from 'infective trachoma', said JP Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare as he released the National Trachoma Survey Report (2014-17), here on Friday.
Terming it as a momentous achievement, Nadda said that the survey findings indicate that the active trachoma infection has been eliminated among children in all the survey districts with overall prevalence of only 0.7 per cent.
This is much below the elimination criteria of infective trachoma as defined by the WHO-active trachoma is considered eliminated if the prevalence of active infection among children below 10 years is less than 5 per cent, he added.
Dr Praveen Vashist, professor and head of community ophthalmology, who was part of the survey team stressed on need for constant surveillance by the States to report any fresh cases of trachoma and trachoma sequelae (TT cases) and to treat them promptly to finally be completely free of trachoma.