Trachoma and the Need for a Coordinated Community-Wide Response: A Case-Based Study

A young nurse, undertaking a working holiday in Australia, sees a 5-year-old Aboriginal girl while doing a locum in a remote coastal community of the Northern Territory. The young girl has been brought in by her grandmother because she has discharge coming from her eyes. From the notes, the nurse sees that the child has had multiple presentations for ear and skin infections but is otherwise well. The child’s immunisations are up to date. The girl denies having any pain but otherwise cannot provide much history; neither can her grandmother, who states that the girl has been staying with an aunt. Upon examination there is a small amount of mucopurulent discharge, her visual acuity is normal, and the rest of the examination is unremarkable. A diagnosis of bacterial conjunctivitis is made, and the nurse is about to send the young girl home with some antibiotic eyedrops, when she decides to mention the girl’s problem to the senior clinic nurse.