Cost and community acceptability of enhanced antibiotic distribution approaches for trachoma in the Republic of South Sudan: enhancing the A in SAFE (ETAS) study protocol.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization targeted trachoma for global elimination as a public health problem by 2030. Reaching elimination thresholds by the year 2030 in the Republic of South Sudan will be a considerable challenge, as the country currently has many counties considered hyper-endemic (> 30% trachomatous inflammation-follicular [TF]) that have yet to receive interventions. Evidence from randomized trials, modeling, and population-based surveys suggests that enhancements may be needed to the standard-of-care annual mass drug administration (MDA) to reach elimination thresholds in a timely manner within highly endemic areas. We describe a protocol for a study to determine the cost and community acceptability of enhanced antibiotic strategies for trachoma in South Sudan. METHODS: The Enhancing the A in SAFE (ETAS) study is a community randomized intervention costing and community acceptability study. Following a population-based trachoma prevalence survey in 1 county, 30 communities will be randomized 1:1 to receive 1 of 2 enhanced MDA interventions, with the remaining communities receiving standard-of-care annual MDA. The first intervention strategy will consist of a community-wide MDA followed by 2 rounds of targeted treatment to children ages 6 months to 9 years, 2 weeks and 4 weeks after the community MDA. The second strategy will consist of a community-wide biannual MDA approximately 6 to 8 months apart. The costing analysis will use a payer perspective and identify the total cost of the enhanced interventions and annual MDA. Community acceptability will be assessed through MDA coverage monitoring and mixed-methods research involving community stakeholders. A second trachoma-specific survey will be conducted 12 months following the original survey. DISCUSSION: ETAS has received ethical clearance and is expected to be conducted between 2022 and 2023. Results will be shared through subsequent manuscripts. The study's results will provide information to trachoma programs on whether enhanced interventions are affordable and acceptable to communities. These results will further help in the design of future trachoma-specific antibiotic efficacy trials. Enhanced MDA approaches could help countries recover from delays caused by conflict or humanitarian emergencies and could also assist countries such as South Sudan in reaching trachoma elimination as a public health problem by 2030. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was registered on December 1st, 2022 (clinicaltrails.org: NCT05634759).

Modelling trachoma post-2020: opportunities for mitigating the impact of COVID-19 and accelerating progress towards elimination.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted planned annual antibiotic mass drug administration (MDA) activities that have formed the cornerstone of the largely successful global efforts to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem. METHODS: Using a mathematical model we investigate the impact of interruption to MDA in trachoma-endemic settings. We evaluate potential measures to mitigate this impact and consider alternative strategies for accelerating progress in those areas where the trachoma elimination targets may not be achievable otherwise. RESULTS: We demonstrate that for districts that were hyperendemic at baseline, or where the trachoma elimination thresholds have not already been achieved after three rounds of MDA, the interruption to planned MDA could lead to a delay to reaching elimination targets greater than the duration of interruption. We also show that an additional round of MDA in the year following MDA resumption could effectively mitigate this delay. For districts where the probability of elimination under annual MDA was already very low, we demonstrate that more intensive MDA schedules are needed to achieve agreed targets. CONCLUSION: Through appropriate use of additional MDA, the impact of COVID-19 in terms of delay to reaching trachoma elimination targets can be effectively mitigated. Additionally, more frequent MDA may accelerate progress towards 2030 goals.