“Progress towards global trachoma elimination continues to be strong. Overall, the number of people worldwide who require the A, F and E components of SAFE has fallen from 190.2 million in 2016 to 92.0 million on 20 March 2026: a 52% fall over ten years. Over the same decade the global burden of TT fell from 2.8 million in 2016 to 1.2 million on 20 March 2026: a 58% fall.
Since the most recent progress report on elimination of trachoma in the Weekly Epidemiological Record, published 12 months ago, 7 countries have been validated by WHO as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem: Fiji (October 2025), Egypt (November 2025), Libya (February 2026), Algeria (April 2026), Australia (May 2026), Tunisia (May 2026), and El Salvador (July 2026). In 2025, Afghanistan undertook antibiotic MDA for the first time. The Alliance warmly congratulates each of these countries on their achievements.”
