Vaccine makes headway against trachoma

The above map shows with the shaded areas where trachoma, a potentially blinding chlamydia infection, can be found in the world.

Scientists have made a vaccine that could protect against the disease of trachoma. Trachoma is better known as  C. trachomatis  and is the cause of the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia. The scientists tested monkeys  by giving them a vaccine  which would make them become partially or totally immune to Chlamydia trachomatis, which is the microbe that creates the condition. To make the vaccine  the scientists had to delete a component of the C. trachomatis which was suspected to play a role in the disease. The study used 12 total monkeys and although trachomatis is spread with flies and interpersonal contact 6 monkeys received the doses of vaccine by eye drops and the other 6 unvaccinated.   Danny Haddad, director of the International Trachoma Initiative, says, " it could still could be years before a vaccine reaches the public, but allows that 'it could be a very helpful tool within the global strategy against trachoma.'”.