"Trachoma: Defeating a Blinding Curse," a documentary film from award-winning producer Gary Strieker and Cielo Productions, follows Carter Center staff, global health partners, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter engaged in a comprehensive strategy to eliminate blinding trachoma in Ethiopia.
Watch "Trachoma: Defeating a Blinding Curse" (56 minutes) below.
For seven years, a documentary film crew followed Carter Center staff and teams of health care professionals in Ethiopia as they fought to eliminate blinding trachoma in Amhara Region, the most endemic region in Ethiopia. Carter Center national and field staff worked with local leaders using the SAFE strategy, a multi-pronged approach to trachoma prevention that includes: Surgery, Antibiotics, Face washing and hygiene education, and Environmental improvement.
The Carter Center works with ministries of health in six African countries to eliminate blinding trachoma, the world's leading cause of preventable blindness. Trachoma is a bacterial eye infection found in poor, isolated communities lacking basic hygiene, clean water, and adequate sanitation. It is easily spread through eye-seeking flies, hands, and clothes. Repeated infection leads to scarring and inward turning of the eyelid, eventually causing blindness if left untreated.
Trachoma can be found in over 50 countries, most in Africa and the Middle East, and a few countries in the Americas and Asia.
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