“Trachoma: go! We don’t
want you!”

In his first video, meet Iliezer as he begins his long journey, travelling on a boat to the Bijagos Islands. He explains how trachoma affects people’s lives there, what mass drug administration entails and the challenges faced by the team when working in such a remote location.

It isn’t just Iliezer carrying out the mass drug administration on his own – this would be impossible. It takes a huge amount of collaboration to get the job done. That’s why collaborators from the ministry of health, regional health directorates and sanitary areas all need to be involved, as well as local community volunteers – known and trusted by communities – who give out the treatments.

In March 2020, the team had prepared everything and were ready to start work distributing medication. But because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the mass drug administration campaign was delayed by nine months. Before the work could begin safely, it was important to assess the risks and put in place extra processes to protect everyone involved.

Surveys will now be carried out to check whether the mass drug administration was successful in reducing the number of trachoma cases in Bijagos. But it’s not just mass drug administration that is needed. Eliminating trachoma from a whole country takes much more work, and even more collaboration.

To eliminate trachoma from the whole country, surveys, surgery (for advanced cases) and work to improve the local health system still need to be done. But elimination is possible in the very near future, and successfully controlling the spread of the disease through mass drug administration is a huge step in the right direction for Guinea-Bissau.

Iliezer’s work is delivered through the  Accelerate programme, supported by Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), The ELMA Foundation, UK aid, Virgin Unite and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.