Location:
Berg Family Foundation Seminar Room, Level 6, Wallace Wurth Building, Kensington Campus
Contact for enquiries
Rata Joseph, +61 (2) 9385 0900 or recpt@kirby.unsw.edu.au
Kirby Institute Seminar Series presents
 |
Dr Anthony Solomon Medical Officer, Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization, Geneva |
About your speaker
Dr Anthony Solomon was born in Brisbane and undertook his medical training at the University of Queensland. After residency at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, he completed the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine before taking up a research post in the Northern Region of Ghana. There, in collaboration with the National Eye Care Programme, he helped to develop a method for distributing azithromycin for trachoma elimination. In Tanzania he established a Wellcome Trust-funded trachoma field research unit carrying out longitudinal studies on the impact of community-based treatment with azithromycin. He completed specialist training in Infectious Diseases in the UK and was appointed as a Consultant Physician at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellow at LSHTM. He was Chief Scientist to the Global Trachoma Mapping Project. Since 2014 he has been Medical Officer responsible for the Global Trachoma Elimination Programme at the World Health Organization in Geneva.
Abstract
Trachoma, produced by repeated conjunctival infection with particular strains of Chlamydia trachomatis, has been recognised as a cause of blindness for thousands of years. In May 1998, the World Health Assembly resolved to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem; that formal resolution was backed up by commitments from health ministries and their partners to achieve the milestone by 2020. As the target date approaches, this seminar will consider whether the world is on track to end trachoma blindness in the current decade.