progress
The world's leading cause of infectious blindness is gone here
They went door to door, testing thousands of children. They found nothing.
The World Health Organization has certified Timor-Leste as having eliminated trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness, which makes the entire WHO Southeast Asia region trachoma-free. More than 2 billion people now live with minimal risk of the bacterial infection, and with medical services able to catch and treat it quickly if it returns. Trachoma is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis, and repeated infections scar the inner eyelid until the lashes turn inward and, over years, blind the eye. It tracks closely with poverty and poor access to clean water. Certification followed years of checking. Investigators screened children on Atauro Island, went door to door, and in a 2025 survey analyzed 4,949 samples from young children across all 13 municipalities. They found nothing. "Timor-Leste has once again demonstrated that strong national leadership, high-quality evidence and integrated health services can deliver lasting public health gains," said Dr. Nilesh Buddha of the WHO Southeast Asia Regional Office. India was the last neighbor to reach the mark, in 2024.