Global Grand Challenges
  • Grant Opportunities
  • Challenges
  • Awards
  • Champions
  • Partnerships
  • News
  • About

Innovations to Enhance Implementation of Trachoma Intervention in Tanzania

Innocent Semali of Hubert Kairuki Memorial University in Tanzania will design a more effective strategy for eliminating trachoma in the nomadic Maasai communities in Tanzania. Trachoma is a bacterial disease and a leading cause of blindness. Globally, there are around 84 million sufferers, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. In Tanzania, the standard control strategy, which involves mass drug administration of azithromycin, eliminated trachoma from most districts. However, the strategy has largely failed in nomadic populations for unclear reasons. To identify those reasons, they will work towards building a partnership with a Maasai community and relevant stakeholders and use interviews and surveys to document their perceptions and behaviors around the standard trachoma interventions. This information will be used to understand the failure of the previous interventions and, together with the communities and stakeholders, to develop new strategies for testing in two villages using a mixed methods approach.

More information about Innovations in Eliminating Neglected Tropical Diseases

Great ideas come from everywhere.

Sign up for email updates of the latest grant opportunities and awards.

View the Grand Challenges partnership network

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is part of the Grand Challenges partnership network. Visit www.grandchallenges.org to view the map of awarded grants across this network and grant opportunities from partners.