{"doi":"10.1093/trstmh/traa170","title":"Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in eliminating trachoma as a public health problem","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Progress towards elimination of trachoma as a public health problem has been substantial, but the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted community-based control efforts. METHODS: We use a susceptible-infected model to estimate the impact of delayed distribution of azithromycin treatment on the prevalence of active trachoma. RESULTS: We identify three distinct scenarios for geographic districts depending on whether the basic reproduction number and the treatment-associated reproduction number are above or below a value of 1. We find that when the basic reproduction number is <1, no significant delays in disease control will be caused. However, when the basic reproduction number is >1, significant delays can occur. In most districts, 1 y of COVID-related delay can be mitigated by a single extra round of mass drug administration. However, supercritical districts require a new paradigm of infection control because the current strategies will not eliminate disease. CONCLUSIONS: If the pandemic can motivate judicious, community-specific implementation of control strategies, global elimination of trachoma as a public health problem could be accelerated.","journal":"Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene","year":2021,"id":187158,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":18,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9408,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":274630,"name":"Anna Borlase","orcid":"0000-0002-3189-7047","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":274652,"name":"Joaquín M. Prada","orcid":"0000-0003-4699-5931","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":746159,"name":"Anthony W. Solomon","orcid":"0000-0001-7101-6649","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":743341,"name":"Paul M. Emerson","orcid":"0000-0002-6478-8816","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":744073,"name":"Pamela J. Hooper","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":274638,"name":"Michael Deiner","orcid":"0000-0002-4977-6147","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":274625,"name":"Benjamin Amoah","orcid":"0000-0002-9650-2704","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":274661,"name":"T. Déirdre Hollingsworth","orcid":"0000-0001-5962-4238","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":274651,"name":"Travis C. Porco","orcid":"0000-0001-8813-3171","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":274646,"name":"Thomas M. Lietman","orcid":"0000-0001-8216-0240","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270046,"name":"Seth Blumberg","orcid":"0000-0001-5495-4238","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":46,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:48:51.315888Z","pmid":"33449114","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}