Conclusions & Recommendations
TEC 24
24.10.1 - Peru
2021
Heading 2
Americas
TEC notes that despite several consecutive years of approving the Zithromax® request, MDA has not yet started. TEC recommends that ITI continue to monitor this situation closely and follow-up to ensure the MOU is signed.
Peru
Conclusion/Recommendation:
ITI presented on these challenges in September 2021 during the PAHO Americas meetings and continues to discuss the challenges with PAHO and the MOH in Peru. ITI and PAHO hope that an agreement to ship Zithromax® via PAHO will replace the highly bureaucratic MOU process, which has been stalled for several years.
recommendations for ITI management
TEC 24
24.1.5 - General Recommendations
2021
Heading 2
add more details regarding requests for Zithromax® post-TT surgery (funders and implementing partners)
Conclusion/Recommendation:
This information is being collected in the 2023 Zithromax® for TT-Surgery application form.
TEC meeting management, trichiasis
TEC 24
24.1.4 - General Recommendations
2021
Heading 2
add the definition of coverage to the ‘cheat sheet’
Conclusion/Recommendation:
The definition of Zithromax® coverage has been edited and is included on the TEC cheat sheet
TEC meeting management, coverage
TEC 24
24.1.3 - General Recommendations
2021
Heading 2
include regional prevalence maps in the TEC book, behind each regional tab, so that the cross-border situation can be taken into account when reviewing applications
Conclusion/Recommendation:
These regional prevalence maps will be included beginning TEC 27
TEC meeting management, COVID
TEC 24
24.1.2 - General Recommendations
2021
Heading 2
include Zithromax® requests for research as rows on the applications (e.g., REACH; Stronger SAFE; KETFO)
Conclusion/Recommendation:
A research request form has been added to the surgery request form to track these requests with greater detail
TEC meeting management, research
TEC 24
24.1.1 - General Recommendations
2021
Heading 2
Include district-level data on infection, where available, to provide a more complete picture of trachoma in these areas (using publicly-available data and/or with permission from the MOH/researchers)
Conclusion/Recommendation:
A new column to track this has been added to the TEMFs and publicly-available data is included in the Notes column on the Zithromax® Applications
alternative indicators (Ct, serology), TEC meeting management
TEC 23
23.4.4 - More-frequent-than-annual MDA in “persistent” areas
2021
Heading 2
It is imperative that national programs are involved in the discussions to consider and design more-frequent-than-annual MDA.
Conclusion/Recommendation:
The Trachoma Expert Committee (TEC) and select external experts convened on May 11th to discuss this issue in detail. A report from that meeting will be presented at TEC24.
persistence, alternative treatment strategies
TEC 23
23.4.3 - More-frequent-than-annual MDA in “persistent” areas
2021
Heading 2
Reducing the frequency of trachoma impact surveys while maintaining the current program schedule (annual one-round MDA) will not successfully address the persistence issue, nor will it improve our understanding of what is happening in these districts or decrease overall program costs. TEC recommends that the frequency of TIS and TSS remain unchanged.
Conclusion/Recommendation:
No countries have requested skipping impact or surveillance surveys that are due; however, if they do, this recommendation will be shared with them.
persistence
TEC 23
23.4.2 - More-frequent-than-annual MDA in “persistent” areas
2021
Heading 2
During the rich discussion about “persistence”, there was general consensus that there is a need to do something different in “persistent areas” while conducting enhanced monitoring and evaluation to gather data to demonstrate whether these strategies are effective and generalizable to other areas. TEC agreed, however, that a consensus of an operational definition of "persistence" needs to be reached. TEC will discuss what this means for eliciting and approving requests for Zithromax®.
Conclusion/Recommendation:
The Trachoma Expert Committee (TEC) and select external experts convened on May 11th to discuss this issue in detail. A report from that meeting will be presented at TEC24.
persistence
TEC 23
23.4.1 - More-frequent-than-annual MDA in “persistent” areas
2021
Heading 2
As of January 2021, only 5 districts meet the criteria indicating that they have “skipped” MDA due to COVID-19; therefore, there is little need yet for broad scale mitigation due to COVID-19.
Conclusion/Recommendation:
No action required
COVID