A Surveillance and Azithromycin Treatment for Newcomers and Travelers Evaluation: The ASANTE Trial

Inclusion Criteria

• •Census and Mass Drug Administration (MDA): All persons residing in the 52 study communities will be eligible for both the census and the annual mass azithromycin administrations.
• •Intervention: In the 26 intervention communities, active surveillance for new families and returning travelers will be undertaken, and those meeting the criteria below will be eligible for family treatment with azithromycin if:
• •Families are "newcomers" and
• •They have children under 10 years of age
• •They have moved into a new house in the community or into an existing household
• •They plan to reside for at least 1 month in the study community and
• •They have moved from a community that has not had an MDA in the last year
• •Families are classified as having traveled and
• •They have children under 10 years of age
• •They participated in a previous census in the same community
• •They left the community for at least 8 weeks (2 months) for an area that has not received MDA in the past year and at least one child has returned and
• •They have returned to reside in the community for at least 2 months
• •Sentinel Children: In all 52 communities, samples of 135 children will be selected from the community census lists every six months for survey and examination.
• •These children:
• •must be between 1 year and 9.9 years of age,
• •must be a resident in the community and not a short-term (less than 2 months) visitor,
• •must not have an ocular condition that would preclude grading trachoma or taking an ocular specimen,
• •must be willing to have a swab taken as part of being a sentinel child (this is critical, as each swab result counts towards the criteria for stopping MDA), and
• •must have an identifiable guardian capable of providing consent to participate.
• •Adult Women: In all 52 communities, samples of 100 women will be selected from the baseline community census list.
• •These women:
• •must be aged 15 years and over
• •must be a resident in the community and not a short term (less than 2 months) visitor
• •must not have an ocular condition that precludes grading of scarring on upper conjunctiva
• •must be able to provide informed consent.