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Br J Ophthalmol 1991;75:322-325 doi:10.1136/bjo.75.6.322
  • Research Article

Latrine ownership as a protective factor in inflammatory trachoma in Egypt.

  1. P Courtright,
  2. J Sheppard,
  3. S Lane,
  4. A Sadek,
  5. J Schachter and
  6. C R Dawson
  1. Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco.

      Abstract

      We investigated the association between inflammatory trachoma in children aged 1-5 and environmental and sociodemographic risk factors in a rural Nile Delta hamlet. Inflammatory trachoma clustered in households, emphasising the child-to-child nature of transmission in the hamlet. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed three factors predicting inflammatory trachoma in children: the absence of a latrine in the household, school-age siblings with inflammatory trachoma, and additional same-age siblings (with or without disease) in the household. In the Egyptian setting the presence of pit latrines in all houses, even when full and unscreened, might result in a reduction in trachoma prevalence in this population from the current 49% to 35%. The construction of pit latrines may offer the simplest and most acceptable environmental method for reducing trachoma in this trachoma endemic area.

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