The World Health Organization has officially validated Timor-Leste as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem — and in doing so, cleared the disease from every country in WHO’s South-East Asia Region. Trachoma is the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, and Timor-Leste was the last country in the region where it was suspected to be endemic.
At a glance
- Trachoma elimination: Timor-Leste becomes the 33rd country worldwide — and the fourth in WHO’s South-East Asia Region — to be validated for eliminating trachoma as a public health problem.
- WHO validation: A 2025 survey analyzed 4,949 samples from children aged one to five years across all 13 municipalities and found no evidence of transmission requiring public health intervention.
- South-East Asia Region: With this validation, no country in the entire WHO South-East Asia Region has active endemic trachoma as a public health problem — a first for the region.
A disease that blinds — and why it persists
Trachoma is caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. It spreads through contact with eye and nasal discharge from infected individuals, and repeated infections scar the inner eyelid. Over time, those scars pull the eyelashes inward — a painful condition called trichiasis — and eventually cause irreversible blindness.
The disease is closely tied to poverty. It remains endemic where communities lack access to clean water, sanitation, and basic health care. That’s exactly the kind of structural challenge Timor-Leste, one of Southeast Asia’s youngest nations, had to work through.
A series of investigations between 2015 C.E. and 2017 C.E. examined children on Atauro Island, screened patients at eye clinics across the country, and conducted targeted house-to-house searches. No trachoma was found. Timor-Leste then built further evidence through additional studies, culminating in the 2025 C.E. national survey of nearly 5,000 children that confirmed zero transmission at a level needing trachoma-specific action.
What it took to get here
WHO’s validation is not a rubber stamp. It requires a rigorous, multi-year process — documenting not just the absence of trachoma, but the health system’s ongoing capacity to detect, investigate, and manage any future cases.
Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Health led the effort, with support from WHO and a coalition of partners: the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, The Fred Hollows Foundation, 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.
“By combining sound planning, careful field investigation and modern surveillance, the country has shown how science and strong health systems can protect people from preventable blindness,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
Timor-Leste’s Minister of Health, Dr. Élia A. dos Reis Amaral, called it “a source of immense national pride,” crediting sustained national commitment and the collective work of health workers and communities. She also used the moment to call on the global health community to deepen cooperation so that every country can overcome preventable disease.
Part of a broader global push
Timor-Leste joins 32 other countries — including Ghana, India, Nepal, Viet Nam, and Myanmar — already validated by WHO for trachoma elimination. The global target, set in WHO’s road map for neglected tropical diseases, is to eliminate trachoma worldwide by 2030 C.E.
As of September 2026 C.E., 64 countries have eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease globally, including eight in the South-East Asia Region. Trachoma’s story is one of many disease elimination and public health wins showing that coordinated international effort can roll back diseases once seen as intractable.
Neglected tropical diseases carry devastating health, social, and economic costs — and their burden falls hardest on the world’s poorest communities. That’s why the WHO road map targets not just control but full elimination and eradication of these conditions by the end of the decade.
Sustaining the gains
Validation does not mean the work is finished. Timor-Leste will maintain the capacity to identify and manage individual cases of trichiasis through its eye care system. Specialized services, including trichiasis surgery, remain available at the National Eye Centre at Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares in Dili, with outreach to municipalities. Trachoma surveillance will be integrated into existing national disease and neglected tropical disease platforms.
National programs to expand access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene also continue — targeting the underlying conditions that allow trachoma to take hold in the first place.
One honest caveat: while Timor-Leste has cleared the public health threshold, individual cases of trichiasis and eye disease will still occur, and long-term vigilance depends on sustained funding for both surveillance and the broader WASH infrastructure that keeps trachoma from returning.
Read more
For more on this story, see: World Health Organization
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- WHO ends the COVID-19 global health emergency
- Malaria vaccine price cut gives children a better shot at protection
- The Good News for Humankind archive on Timor-Leste
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