[Trachoma in Senegal: results of a national survey]

A national survey was conducted to determine the prevalence of trachoma in Senegal between February and July 2000. The methodology consisted of a cross-sectional survey based on random sampling with two levels of stratification in five areas or area groups. A total of 12,328 children under 10 years of age and 8753 women over the age of 14 years were examined from 150 clusters (30 clusters per stratum). Excluding the Dakar stratum, the estimated prevalence of active trachoma (TF/TI) and severe trachoma (TI) in children under 10 years of age was 10.8% (IC 95%: 9.2-11.4) and 1.2% (IC 95%: 0.5-2.3) respectively. The corresponding prevalence for the areas around Dakar were 3.3% et 0.3%. Prevalence rates were highest between the ages of 2 and 3 years (17.4%). However these rates concealed major differences between strata since prevalence ranged from 3.3% in Dakar to 14.2% in Thiès-Diourbel. Excluding Dakar, the estimated prevalence of entropion/trichiasis and corneal opacity among women over the age of 14 years was 2.6% (IC 95%: 1.9-3.4) and 1.4% (IC 95%: 0.9-1.8). The prevalence of trichiasis was over 1% in every area except Tambacouna and reached 4% in Thiès-Diourbel. Trichiasis was observed in 17.1% of women over the age of 70. Based on extrapolation of these data to the whole country, it can be deduced that 272,020 children have active trachoma requiring medical treatment and that 115,000 persons over 14 years of age present trichiasis requiring surgical treatment.