Morocco to wage anti-trachoma campaign

Morocco will start on September 15 a campaign against trachoma in its south-eastern areas, the health department announced.

The campaign --that will target patients in the towns of Errachidya, Figuig, Ouarzazate, Tata and Zagora--will be waged in cooperation with the World Health Organization, the US International Trachoma Initiative and the US Helen Keller International Organization.

The health department assured the region's inhabitants that all medicines are available and encouraged them to accept any surgeries that might be proposed to them.

Some 635,000 patients were treated for free last year, in addition to another 8,000 who were operated on for trachoma complications.

The Moroccan health authorities mobilized 100 physicians, 400 nurses and 1,000 paramedics for the 1999-2000 trachoma campaign.