Muhammad Kamran Khalid, Iftikhar Ahmad, Habibullah Khan.
Trachoma therapy: an alternative regimen.
Gomal J Med Sci Jan ;11(2):224-6.

Background: Trachoma is caused by a bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an alternative regimen of oral azithromycin for the treatment of active trachoma against WHO recommended regimen. Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Khano Eye Hospital, Lakki Marwat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, from January 2008 to December 2008. Sixty patients with active trachoma were included. Those with advanced trachomatous complications like trichiasis and corneal opacity were excluded. Patients were randomly assigned to two groups of 30. Group A received oral azithromycin one gram stat, while Group B was given oral azithromycin 500 mg daily for 3 days. Success of regimen was defined as disappearance of discharge and improvement of “off & on” defective vision at 2 weeks. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. P<0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results: Out of 60 patients, 20(33.3%) were males and 40(66.6%) females. Mean age of the patients was 26.3+5.5 (12-45) years. Fifty (83.3%) patients were living in rural areas and 10(16.7%) in urban areas. Predominant symp- toms were sticky eyes in the morning in 18(30%) patients and defective vision “off & on” in 36(60%) patients. Twenty-eight (96.7%) patients showed improvement in symptoms in the form of disappearance of discharge and visual improvement in group-A as compared to 29(98.6%) in group-B. The difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Conclusion: Oral azithromycin 500 mg daily for three days may be used safely and effectively for the treatment of active trachoma.

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