The government has started the process of distributing 971.4 million Br worth of trachoma medications that can treat over 14 million people.

Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Supply Agency (EPSA) started the distribution of Azithromycin suspension, Azithromycin tablet and Tetracyclineeye ointment, all manufactured in the United States, to treat individuals from diseases related to visual impairment and blindness.

These pharmaceuticals will be distributed to 82 districts in Amhara, Oromia, Tigray and Southern Nations, Nationalities, & Peoples' regional states. The medicines will be dispersed with the mass drug administration campaign [an approach to deliver medications to people in at-risk communities once or twice a year] set to begin in April. The Agency has already started allocating the medicines to warehouses in the districts.

The trachoma medicines are allotted to districts based on the prevalence of trachoma. If trachomatous follicular (TF) prevalence is less than five percent, there is no need for the campaign. If the prevalence is above five percent in children who are three to five years, the campaign is recommended once a year.

The latest initiative is the second round community-based mass drug administration campaign implemented by the Agency, according to Daniel Teferi, a supply chain technical advisor at the Agency.

"Besides, to limit destitution brought by visual impairment," said Daniel, "it is essential to support families in different parts of the country."

About 70 million people live in trachoma endemic areas in Ethiopia, which is 44pc of the global burden of active trachoma, according to an issue of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Weekly Epidemiological Record in 2017.

Previously, the Agency distributed 1.7 billion Br worth of pharmaceuticals to treat over 24.6 million people for trachoma in a campaign conducted from October 2019 to November 2019. The pharmaceuticals were given out to districts in Afar, Benishangul, Gambella and Somali regions.

All trachoma medicine from the first round were distributed to intended districts through mass drug administration cascaded to each area of the regional states, according to the technical advisor.

In the two rounds of campaigns, a total of 2.7 billion Br worth of trachoma pharmaceuticals that can treat over 36.3 million people will be distributed.