Participants were examined for signs of trachoma either by an experienced ophthalmologist or an ophthalmic clinical officer, according to the WHO simplified grading system [25].
Clinical signs of active trachoma, namely, trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) and trachomatous inflammation-intense (TI), were graded for each eye separately by two ophthalmologists and an ophthalmic nurse according to the WHO simplified grading system [ 27].
The WHO trachoma simplified grading system is currently the only WHO-recommended system to assess the clinical trachoma prevalence and to monitor a trachoma control programme in a community.
Clinical exams, using an expansion of the WHO simplified grading scheme [ 8, 9] were performed on 264 children aged 1 to 6 years who were randomly selected from a single village in Kongwa District.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has categorized the clinical features of trachoma in five stages using the WHO simplified grading system [4], [5] as follows; Trachomatous inflammation follicular (TF), Trachomatous inflammation intense (TI), Trachoma Scarring (TS), Trachomatous trichiasis (TT) and Corneal opacity (CO).
The WHO simplified grading system was used for the recognition and registering of cases of trachoma.
All selected children were assessed for active trachoma by the principal investigator who had 3 years of experience in trachoma grading using WHO trachoma simplified grading system with binocular examination loupe (2.5 times magnification) and torch light [ 14].
Notice that 0x00000000 is a nop instruction; please use this, as it will simplify grading and testing.
To simplify the grading categories, four grades (i.e., scanty positive, 1+, 2+ and 3+) were combined to two categories.
To simplify the grading categories, four grades were (i.e., scanty positive, 1+, 2+ and 3+) were combined to two categories.
Trachoma grading was examined by 5 eye integrated worker (4 health officers and 1 diploma nurse), by wearing 2.5x loupes, assessed each eye for signs of active trachoma using the WHO simplified grading scheme.
