Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Hygiene and the Prevention of Trachoma in the Indigenous Population of the Colombian Amazon Vaupés Department.

The Colombian program to end trachoma implements the component F of the SAFE strategy in the Vaupés department of the Amazon rainforest. Cultural, linguistic, and geographical barriers and the coexistence of an ancestral medical system demand the technical and sociocultural adaptation of this component. A cross-sectional survey combined with focus-group discussions to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the indigenous population related to trachoma was conducted in 2015. Of the 357 heads of households that participated, 45.1% associated trachoma with a lack of hygiene, and 94.7% associated the concept of hygiene with taking one or more body baths per day, using commercial or handcrafted soap. In total, 93% reported cleaning their children's faces and eyes more often when they have conjunctivitis, but 66.1% also did this with clothes or towels in use, and 52.7% of people shared towels; in total, 32.8% indicated that they would use ancestral medicine to prevent and treat trachoma. The SAFE strategy in Vaupés requires an intercultural approach to facilitate stakeholder support and participation to promote general and facial hygiene, washing clothes with soap, and not sharing towels and clothes to dry and clean children's faces for effective and sustainable elimination of trachoma as a public health problem. This qualitative assessment facilitated an intercultural approach locally and in other Amazonian locations.

Prevalence of trachoma and associated factors in the rural area of the department of Vaupés, Colombia.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the study were to estimate the prevalence of different clinical signs of trachoma and identify possible factors associated with TF. METHODOLOGY: Following the approval of the study protocol by the ethics committee, a cross-sectional study was conducted in Vaupés, a department of the Colombian Amazon, between the years 2012 and 2013 in two districts. Based on the records obtained from a standardized format for the clinical evaluation of the participants and the factors associated with follicular trachoma, an excel database was built and debugged, which was analyzed using IBM SPSS, Statistics Version 23 and Stata STATA (Version 14, 2015, StataCorp LLC, Texas, USA). RESULTS: The records of 13,091 individuals was collected from 216 rural indigenous communities, of which 12,080 were examined (92.3%); 7,274 in the Western and 4,806 in the Eastern districts. A prevalence of trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) of 21.7% (n = 599; 95% CI 20.2-23.3) in the Western and 24.9% (n = 483; 95% CI 23.1-26.9) in the Eastern district was found in children aged 1 to 9 years. Regarding trachomatous trichiasis (TT), 77 cases were found, of which 14 belonged to the Western district (prevalence 0.3%, CI 95% 0.2-0.5) and 63 to the Eastern district (1.8%, CI 95% 1.4-2.4). Children aged between 1 to 9 years were significantly more likely to have TF when there was the presence of secretions on the face (OR: 3.2; 95% CI: 2.6-3.9). CONCLUSIONS: Trachoma is a public health problem in Vaupés that requires the implementation of the SAFE strategy (S = Surgery, A = Antibiotics, F = Face Washing, E = Environment) in the Eastern and Western districts, for at least 3 consecutive years, in accordance with WHO recommendations.