Prevalence of trachoma in eastern Turkey.

BACKGROUND

This study aims to define the prevalence of trachoma in Erzurum, a town in Eastern Turkey where all types of conjunctivitis are known to be endemic.

METHODS

To determine the epidemiological characteristics of the active and residual disease in the area, we chose 20% of the households in 17 residential areas using simple random sampling.

RESULTS

We examined 6386 individuals aged < 30 and 2220 aged > 30 years. The active and the residual prevalence of the disease was found to be 3.2% in those aged < 30, and 1.9% for the group aged > or = 30. Risk factors included crowded households with five or more members, infrequent washing of the face, visiting thermal springs and the mutual use of towels by household members. According to the laboratory findings, trachoma with conjunctival smear was found positive in the first and second stages, but seropositivity was quite high in the third and fourth stages. The validity of the methods used for the diagnosis and the positive predictive values showed the sensitivity of the eyelid examinations to be 55.3%, specificity 95.4% and positive predictive value 23.9% which were the highest values in the field survey.

CONCLUSIONS

Trachoma continues to be a serious public health threat in Erzurum, and eyelid examination is the most suitable method of diagnosis for surveillance of trachoma.