AUSTRALIA is the only developed country to still have trachoma. But the incidence of the debilitating bacterial eye disease is rapidly falling, with new figures showing a more than threefold decrease among Northern Territory children over three years old.
The Australian Trachoma Surveillance Report, issued by the University of NSW’s Kirby Institute, shows that in 2009, 14 per cent of children aged five to nine in screened communities had trachoma.
Source: The Australian