03305nas a2200673   4500000000100000008004100001100001400042700001400056700001700070700001100087700001200098700001600110700001200126700001600138700001300154700001100167700001400178700001100192700001300203700001400216700001700230700001300247700001200260700001200272700001400284700001300298700001300311700001100324700001600335700001500351700001500366700001600381700001600397700001300413700001400426700001400440700001300454700001200467700001200479700001300491700001200504700001300516700001200529700001200541700001300553700001300566700001400579700001100593700001300604700001100617700001300628700001300641245009300654856007000747300001100817490000700828520178200835022001402617       2015                            d1 aSolomon A1 aPavluck A1 aCourtright P1 aAboe A1 aAdamu L1 aAlemayehu W1 aAlemu M1 aAlexander N1 aKello AB1 aBero B1 aBrooker S1 aChu BK1 aDejene M1 aEmerson P1 aFlueckiger R1 aGadisa S1 aGass KM1 aGebre T1 aHabtamu Z1 aHarvey E1 aHaslam D1 aKing J1 aMesurier RL1 aLewallen S1 aLietman TM1 aMacarthur C1 aMariotti SP1 aMassey A1 aMathieu E1 aMekasha A1 aMillar T1 aMpyet C1 aMunoz B1 aNgondi J1 aOgden S1 aPearce J1 aSarah V1 aSisay A1 aSmith JL1 aTaylor H1 aThomson J1 aWest S1 aWillis R1 aBush S1 aHaddad D1 aFoster A00aThe global trachoma mapping project: Methodology of a 34-country population-based study.  uhttp://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/09286586.2015.1037401  a214-250 v223 a<p><strong>PURPOSE: </strong>To complete the baseline trachoma map worldwide by conducting population-based surveys in an estimated 1238 suspected endemic districts of 34 countries.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>A series of national and sub-national projects owned, managed and staffed by ministries of health, conduct house-to-house cluster random sample surveys in evaluation units, which generally correspond to "health district" size: populations of 100,000-250,000 people. In each evaluation unit, we invite all residents aged 1 year and older from h households in each of c clusters to be examined for clinical signs of trachoma, where h is the number of households that can be seen by 1 team in 1 day, and the product h × c is calculated to facilitate recruitment of 1019 children aged 1-9 years. In addition to individual-level demographic and clinical data, household-level water, sanitation and hygiene data are entered into the purpose-built LINKS application on Android smartphones, transmitted to the Cloud, and cleaned, analyzed and ministry-of-health-approved via a secure web-based portal. The main outcome measures are the evaluation unit-level prevalence of follicular trachoma in children aged 1-9 years, prevalence of trachomatous trichiasis in adults aged 15 + years, percentage of households using safe methods for disposal of human feces, and percentage of households with proximate access to water for personal hygiene purposes.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>In the first year of fieldwork, 347 field teams commenced work in 21 projects in 7 countries.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>With an approach that is innovative in design and scale, we aim to complete baseline mapping of trachoma throughout the world in 2015.</p>
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