We don't hear enough about public health successes. Here's one.
Trachoma, a major bacterial cause of blindness, has declined massively across Africa over the past few decades, after directed efforts to provide antibiotics, clean water & improve hygiene.
ALT Two maps of Africa showing the prevalence of trachoma in children, compared between baseline surveys and the most recent surveys.
In the baseline surveys, many or most regions show 5% of children had follicular trachoma, the early stage of the disease. In many countries, over 30% of children are estimated to have it.
However, in the most recent surveys, the prevalence has declined massively, and only a small number of regions have prevalences over 5%.
At the end of the program, of all the areas surveyed, 92% had begun using mass antibiotic treatment programs, and 77% of areas managed to reduce the prevalence of trachoma by 50% or more.
Data comes from the Global Trachoma Atlas, published in Kristen Renneker et al. (2022).