Objective: To determine the prevalence of blinding trachoma among refugees in South Western Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional outreach clinic based descriptive study was conducted on 1 054 refugees in Southwest Ethiopia. A basic eyelid and cornea examination for signs of trachoma was done by using 2.5× binocular magnifying loupe. The findings were classified by using the World Health Orgnization simplified trachoma grading system and data were analyzed by using SPSS version 16.0. Results: A total of 1 054 refugee patients were examined for trachoma, 179 (16.98%) of them had clinical signs of trachoma. About 6 (3.35%) patients had active trachoma with trachomatous trichiasis (TT), 47 (26.26%) patients had TT only and the rest 126 (70.39%) patients had TT with trachomatous corneal opacity. All of the trachoma patients had blinding trachoma (TT with or without trachomatous corneal opacity), and about 60.89% of them had visual impairment. Blinding trachoma was significantly more common among females, patients in age group of 16-59 years, married patients, illiterates and Fugnido camp settlers (P<0.05). Conclusions: There is a very high burden of blinding trachoma among refugees. Urgent surgical intervention is needed to prevent blindness and low vision in the study subjects, and targeted regular outreach-based eye care service should be commenced. © 2015 by the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine.

Ethiopia Trachoma Refugees Low vision Trichiasis Blindness

descriptive research educational status visual impairment refugee trachoma eye examination sex ratio human trachomatous cornea opacity cornea eyelid trachomatous trichiasis blinding trachoma marriage cross-sectional study Adolescent cornea opacity male trichiasis female refugee camp prevalence Article Ethiopia major clinical study adult age distribution Child