Australia finally catches up to 163 other countries by eliminating trachoma
In the 1970s, Professor Fred Hollows predicted the condition would only go away once Indigenous communities had control of their health.
It was considered one of Australia’s national shames.
Trachoma was non-existent in the rest of the developed world but remained rife in remote Indigenous communities. When national surveillance began in 2008, an estimated 3000 Australian children had the condition.
But that is no longer the case.
The WHO declared on 29 April that Australia had eliminated trachoma, becoming the 164th country where it is no longer endemic after countries such as Malawi and the Gambia.
