The investigators propose a randomized controlled trial of discontinuation versus continuation of annual mass azithromycin distribution in hypoendemic communities of Maniema, DRC. The investigators will randomize communities with up to 20% Trachomatous Inflammation - Follicular (TF) prevalence following at least 5 years of mass azithromycin distribution to discontinuation or continuation of 3 additional years of annual mass azithromycin distribution.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
In study communities randomized to the Azithromycin Continuation arm, all individuals aged 1 month and older will receive a single mass distribution of azithromycin several weeks after the baseline and 36-month monitoring visits. In study communities randomized to Azithromycin Discontinuation, participants will receive no treatment.
University of California, San Francisco
Kindu, Maniema Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ocular chlamydia measured in a population-based sample of 0-9 year-old children
Assessed by PCR.
Time frame: 36 months
Infectious load of chlamydia among 0-9-year-old children infected with ocular chlamydia
Assessed by PCR.
Time frame: 36 months
Conjunctival inflammation
Assessed from conjunctival photography. Clinical photographs of the conjunctiva will be assessed by masked graders according to the grading scale described by the WHO Simplified Grading System. The system includes five signs, each of which can be present or absent: Trachomatous inflammation - follicular Trachomatous inflammation-intense Trachomatous scarring Trachomatous trichiasis Corneal opacity
Time frame: 36 months
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