Anti-Trachoma Project, Vietnam

This project, aiming to prevent and treat and eventually to eliminate the eye infection Trachoma, which is the commonest infective cause of blindness in Vietnam, commenced with a pilot project in three districts of the province in 1998 and we were fortunate to receive a grant from the National Lottery Charities Board in 1999. This was for £93,500 over four years. The immediate aim was to reduce the incidence of the acute (and potentially curable) phase of the infection to 5% by the year 2010, when it has been found that the complications which eventually cause blindness are greatly reduced. In the 20 districts of the province so far included in the programme, the incidence has fallen already to below 5% – and the cost for the many thousands of beneficiaries has been just over 30 pence per head! The cost for the remaining districts will be greater because these are the most distant (by winding roads into mountainous areas with ethnic minority peoples whose language is different and therefore educational publications will have to be in both “Vietnamese” and their own dialect.