The World Health Organization validated on 3 September 2026 that Timor-Leste has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, making it the last country in WHO’s South-East Asia Region with suspected endemic trachoma to reach that milestone. With the validation, trachoma has now been eliminated as a public health problem across the entire South-East Asia Region, according to WHO.
Trachoma is described by WHO as the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, spread through contact with eye and nose discharge from infected people, often among young children who can then pass it to others in their household.
Years of surveillance behind the milestone
The validation rests on years of field investigation. Surveys between 2015 and 2017 examined children on Atauro Island, screened patients at eye clinics nationwide and conducted house-to-house searches without finding the disease. A further 2025 survey analysed nearly 4,949 samples from children aged one to five across all 13 of the country’s municipalities, finding no evidence of transmission at a level requiring continued public health intervention.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Timor-Leste had shown “how science and strong health systems can protect people from preventable blindness,” calling the regional elimination a significant step towards WHO’s global target of eliminating trachoma by 2030.
A wide partnership
The evidence supporting the validation was generated under the leadership of Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Health, with support from WHO and partners including the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, The Fred Hollows Foundation, the Menzies School of Health Research, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, Lions Clubs International Foundation and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.
Why It Matters
Trachoma disproportionately affects people in poor, rural communities with limited access to clean water and sanitation, and repeated infection in childhood can lead to irreversible blindness in adulthood. Clearing the disease across an entire WHO region removes a preventable cause of lifelong disability for future generations, and demonstrates a model of sustained surveillance that other endemic countries can follow.
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