INTERNATIONAL TRACHOMA INITIATIVE APPOINTS NEW COUNTRY REPRESENTATIVE FOR TANZANIA

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The International Trachoma Initiative (ITI), the world's only non-governmental organization dedicated solely to the elimination of blinding trachoma, has named Dr. Bernadetha Robert Shilio as the new ITI Country Representative for Tanzania. Based at the ITI offices in Dar Es Salaam, Dr. Shilio will oversee all aspects of ITI's work in Tanzania, including active collaboration with Tanzania's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to implement activities based on the Five Year National Trachoma Control Program Strategic Plan (2004-2008). She will work closely with national, regional and district coordinators as well as facilitating research and providing technical support to the program.

“We warmly welcome Dr. Shilio who brings to ITI an effective combination of clinical research experience, in-the-field experience, and management experience,” said Ibrahim Jabr, president of ITI. “We are convinced that she will have a lasting impact on ITI's trachoma control work in Tanzania.” ITI's headquarters are based in New York City with country programs in 18 countries in Asia and Africa.

Over 45,000 Tanzanians have been blinded by trachoma, an infectious eye disease that is the world's leading cause of preventable blindness. Since ITI's work started in Tanzania in 1999, awareness of trachoma as a treatable disease increased from a localized problem in central Tanzania to countrywide due to advocacy efforts. Since 1999, over 22,000 Tanzanians have received sight-saving trachomatous trichiasis surgeries and more than 16 million people have been treated with Pfizer-donated Zithromax. However, an estimated two million Tanzanians who are 15 years and older have active trachoma and over 167,000 residents of the country have trichiasis, the advanced stage of trachoma, and need immediate surgery. An additional 12.5 million people in Tanzania are at risk of trachoma infection.

“I am happy to be part of the ITI family and I am pleased to be given the opportunity to put in practice what I have learned in preventing blindness and join the global effort to eliminate trachoma,” said Dr. Shilio. “Children have been a speciality for me and they are particularly prone to active trachoma, with prevalence as high as 67% for 1-9 years old children in some districts in Tanzania. We need to reduce the overall prevalence of active trachoma and the backlog of sight-saving surgeries for adults in Tanzania. I am eager to use my experience in clinical research, with the national eye care program, and field experience in trachoma surveys, to come up with good solutions and gain strong support from other stakeholders within and outside Tanzania.”

Worldwide, trachoma has blinded or irreversibly impaired the sight of 10 million people and endangers the sight of 41 million more. This neglected tropical disease affects poor communities in 55 countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia and results in an estimated US$2.9 billion in lost productivity each year. Trachoma can be treated, prevented, and ultimately eliminated through an innovative community-based, WHO-developed approach called SAFE—an integrated program that includes Surgery to correct advanced stages of the disease, Antibiotics to treat active disease using Pfizer- donated Zithromax®, Facial cleanliness to reduce transmission, and Environmental improvement to eliminate the disease altogether.

“This disease of poverty disproportionately affects women and children, devastating families and communities and slowing vital human development,” said Jabr. “At the same time, trachoma is relatively easy and cost effective to cure and to prevent. With a concerted effort and single-minded focus, we believe the world can meet the goal of eliminating blinding trachoma by 2020.”

Prior to joining ITI, Dr. Shilio was the acting head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre. In this capacity, in addition to her work as an ophthalmologist, she oversaw activities of the department and coordinated medical doctor degree students. Dr. Shilio has performed research on refractive errors among secondary school students, and on the causes of childhood blindness. She obtained her Medical Doctor degree from the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences, University of Dar Es Salaam, and received postgraduate Masters of Science in Community Ophthalmology from the International Centre for Eye Health, University College London, and Masters of Medicine in Ophthalmology from Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College, Tumaini University. Dr. Shilio is a member of the East African Society of Ophthalmologists and is a fellow of the Eastern Africa College of Ophthalmologists.