Authors: Taye, A.¹; Alemayehu, W.²; Melese, M.²; Geyid, A.¹; Mekonnen, Y.¹; Tilahun, D.¹; Asfaw, T.¹

Source: Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Volume 101, Number 5, July 2007 , pp. 441-448(8)

Publisher: Maney Publishing

Abstract:

In the Gurage zone of central Ethiopia, the association between fly density and the occurrence of trachoma has been investigated across varying altitudes. The seasonal pattern of fly density in the area was also explored. When, over short sampling periods (10 min/child indoors and 10 min/child outdoors), hand nets were used to collect flies from the eyes of children aged 2–8 years, only Musca sorbens and M. domestica were caught. Almost all of the 13,147 'eye-seeking' flies collected came from villages at low (<2000 m; 40.7%) or mid altitudes (2200–2500 m; 58.6%) with only 0.7% of them caught in the high-altitude villages investigated (at >3000 m). Musca sorbens predominated outdoors and M. domestica indoors. Almost all (99.3%) of the eye-seeking M. sorbens collected were caught outdoors whereas most (76.7%) of the M. domestica were caught indoors (P<0.0001 for each). The median numbers of flies caught, per child, per 10-min collection, in the low-, mid- and high-altitude villages were 9.5, six and zero, respectively, for M. sorbens, and eight, three and zero, respectively, for M. domestica. The altitudinal trends in these numbers of 'eye-seeking' flies matched those in the prevalences of active trachoma among children aged 1–10 years, which were high in the villages at low (81.6%) and mid altitude (78.7%) but much lower (1.7%) in the high-altitude villages. In conclusion, trachoma is a common disease of public-health importance only in the low- and mid-altitude villages in the Gurage zone, where there are large numbers of eye-seeking flies, and not in the villages that lie >3000 m above sea level, where there is a dearth of such flies.

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/136485907X176544

Affiliations: 1: Department of Infectious and Non-infectious Diseases Research, Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute, P.O. Box 1242, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2: ORBIS International Ethiopia, P.O. Box 23508 Code 1000, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Publication date: 2007-07-01

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• In 2012 Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology changed its name to Pathogens of Global Health to reflect changes and developments in the subject area. View the issues of Pathogens of Global Health available online..
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