To check for trachoma a doctor or eye doctor will do a physical eye exam by flipping your upper eyelid to look for any tiny bumps, scars or turned in eyelashes.
The doctor or eye doctor may also use a cotton swab to take a fluid sample from the eye for testing in the lab.
To perform the physical exam to check for trachoma, the doctor will inspect your eyelid by gently flipping your upper eyelid inside out to look at the inner lining.
The doctor will also check for small white, gray or yellow bumps (follicles) and scar lines using a magnifying tool or a bright light.
And they will also look to see if your eyelashes are rubbing against your cornea is hazy.
For the laboratory tests to check for trachoma, your doctor will numb the eye and rub a soft swab on the surface to collect cells and then the cells are tested in a lab to confirm the presence of the Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria.
People with trachoma see a world, which gets increasingly hazy, blurred and the even become sensitive to bright light and eventually the trachoma can turn into partial or even complete blindness if the trachoma is left untreated.
When a person has trachoma, things look fuzzy and unclear to them, because repeat infections scar and cloud the cornea, which is the front part of the eye.
And sunlight as well as indoor lights also hurt or feel to bright to a person with trachoma, and it makes them want to keep their eyes shut and new blood vessels can grow across the eye surface and act like a dirty window that blocks clear images and in advanced stages of trachoma, severe corneal damage leads to permanent blindness.
When a person has trachoma, the persons eyes experience constant scratching as the eyes are often scraped by eyelashes that are turned inward and rub the eyeball with every blink and thick mucus or pus can also come out of the eyes.
Trachoma is also caused by poor hygiene and poor sanitation, which create the conditions that allow the trachoma infection to spread easily.
Trachoma is also caused by certain subtypes of chlamydia trachomatis, which is a bacterium that also can cause the STD chlamydia.
Trachoma also spreads through contact with discharge from the nose or eyes of an infected person, and even hands, clothing, towels and insects, especially flies can spread trachoma.
No parasite causes trachoma as trachoma is caused by an obligate intracellular bacterium called Chlamydia trachomatis, most specially the ocular strains that are responsible for the trachoma disease are serovars A, B, Ba, and C.
Trachoma is spread through direct contact, like from sharing eye and nose secretions from an infected person, touching contaminated items like towels, bedding or clothes and even flies, that move from the discharge of an infected person to another person.
Trachoma is the world's leading infectious cause of blindness and is most common in areas that have limited access to clean water and poor sanitation and repeated infections of trachoma over many years also cause your eyelid to turn inward, scraping your eyeball and leads to blindness.
However there are also flies that spread trachoma, which are eye seeking bazaar flies, also known as the Musca sorbens fly.
Musca sorbens feeds on the liquid and the protein secretions that are found on human eyes and noses, especially in children.
And the fly acts as a mechanical vector, picking up the Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria on it's feet and mouthparts from an infected person and transfers it to a healthy person.
The eye seeking bazaar flies or Musca sorbens flies prefer to lay their eggs in exposed human feces on the ground, which makes poor sanitation a major factor in high populations of these flies and other flies.
Trachoma is most common in crowded and poor and rural areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The trachoma condition is heavily concentrated in sub-Saharan regions of Africa, the Sahel, and East and Central Africa and trachoma is also found in remote pockets of South America, Central America as well as Asia and the Middle East.
And places with very limited access to clean water, poor personal hygiene and inadequate sanitation are at higher risk of trachoma.
People that are most affected by trachoma are young children and women as active eye infections including trachoma are most common in children of preschool age and women also suffer from blinding complications up to 4 times more often than men because women spend more time caring for infected children.
The organ that is affected by trachoma is the eyes, most specifically the conjunctiva, which is the membrane that lines the inner eyelids as well as the cornea.
Trachoma is a contagious bacterial eye infection that get's it's named from the Greek word for "roughness" due to the bumpy appearance that trachoma creates inside of your eyelids.
Trachoma is caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis and it leads to severe inflammation, scarring of your inner eyelid and even potential blindness.
Trachoma is also spread and transmitted through personal contact or even flies.
Other names for trachoma include granular conjunctivitis and even blinding granular conjunctivitis.
Trachoma used to exist throughout Europe as well as the United States, even into the 20th century.
Although improvements in living conditions in many parts of the world have thankfully wiped out trachoma, and so trachoma is not as widespread as it used to be, but still 97.1 million people are at risk for developing trachoma.
So while trachoma is less common than it used to be, trachoma still does exist.
Trachoma can also be cured and treated by using antibiotics for early infections of trachoma and surgery for any advanced eyelid damage.
The medical treatments for trachoma include antibiotics like oral azithromycin or tetracycline eye ointment to clear the bacterial infection of chlamydia trachomatis, especially when it's caught early enough.
And in some cases, simple eyelid surgery may be needed to fix turned in eyelashes, (trichiasis) to stop them from scratching and ruining your cornea.
For prevention and care of trachoma these things include facial cleanliness and environmental improvements.
Better access to improved sanitation and clean water also lower your risk of repeat infections of trachoma.
And washing faces and hands also stops the bacteria from spreading for trachoma through personal contact.