Egypt has just officially reached the point of being free of trachoma as a public health problem. This is a significant milestone in the country’s public health system. This was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO), which lists Egypt as the seventh country in the Eastern Mediterranean region to have eliminated the disease. This achievement, of course, did not happen overnight and is the result of decades of effort and commitment to the well-being of the population.
Egypt celebrates historic victory after more than a century of fighting trachoma
For those who don’t know, trachoma is an eye infection caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, and records of this disease have accompanied humanity for millennia. In Egypt, cases of trachoma date back more than 3,000 years. At the beginning of the 20th century, the country began to organize measures to deal with the problem, an initiative that was led by pioneering doctors such as Arthur Ferguson MacCallan, who created mobile and fixed hospitals focused on eye treatment.
But despite these initial advances, trachoma continued to affect entire communities for quite some time. In the 1970s and 1980s, the disease was common in rural areas, especially among children in the Nile Delta. The situation began to reverse more consistently from 2002 onwards, when the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population, in partnership with the WHO, adopted the SAFE strategy — an acronym for Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial Cleansing, and Environmental Improvements, which was fundamental in breaking the cycle of infection and reducing the number of cases.
Between 2015 and 2025, surveillance and mapping programs in all 27 Egyptian provinces showed consistent reductions in the disease among children and adults. In 2024, the country integrated trachoma monitoring into its national electronic surveillance system, allowing for faster responses to potential new cases.
National and international cooperation was crucial to Egypt’s success
Egypt’s success in achieving this milestone stems from a series of collective efforts ranging from public policies on sanitation and access to drinking water to health education initiatives in the most vulnerable communities. The Haya Karima program, for example, played a crucial role in expanding water and sanitation infrastructure in rural areas, reducing conditions favorable to disease transmission.
Another point worth highlighting was the collaboration between the Egyptian Ministry of Health, the WHO, and various international organizations in this effort to combat the disease. Among the various partners, we can cite as examples the Haya Karima Foundation, the Eastern Mediterranean Trachoma Alliance, the Nourseen Foundation, the International Trachoma Initiative, and the Sightsavers organization, which contributed technical and financial resources.
Trachoma was not the first tropical disease to be combated by Egypt
The elimination of trachoma is particularly noteworthy because it is the second neglected tropical disease eliminated by Egypt. The country had already been certified by the WHO in 2018 for eliminating lymphatic filariasis. Today, 58 countries in the world have eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease, and nine of them are in the WHO Eastern Region.
Lessons from Egypt inspire the world and show that elimination is possible
The Egyptian achievement has a major global impact, mainly due to the example it set in combating the disease. The country now joins the group of nations that have proven that, even in challenging contexts, it is possible to eradicate old diseases through well-defined policies and constant surveillance plans for the health system.
The WHO announcement recognizes Egypt’s effort in achieving a major health and human milestone. The country has shown that eliminating trachoma, besides being a technically and medically challenging task, deserves recognition as an empathetic achievement that combined persistence and commitment to the population, serving as an inspiration to the world and proving that even age-old diseases can finally be left behind.