Dr. Abdou Ousseini, a public health physician in Niger’s Zinder region, examines a patient's eyelids for trichiasis, a turning of the eyelashes that can permanently scar a trachoma sufferer’s corneas. (Photo: The Carter Center/S. Phelps)

Our Goal

The Trachoma Control Program works with ministries of health in five African countries to eliminate blinding trachoma, the world's leading cause of preventable blindness.

What is Trachoma?

Trachoma is a bacterial eye infection found in poor, isolated communities lacking basic hygiene, clean water, and adequate sanitation.

Trachoma is easily spread from person to person through eye-seeking flies, hands, and clothes. Repeated infection over time leads to scarring and inward turning of the eyelid, causing the eyelashes to scratch the cornea — a very painful condition called trachomatous trichiasis — which eventually causes blindness if left untreated.