Controlled treatment trials of trachoma in American Indian children.

The effect of topical applications of tetracycline and the administration by mouth of sulphafurazole was compared, in a double-blind trial, with that of placebos in a group of American Indian child with chronic trachoma. In this population, bacterial conjunctivitis is uncommon and trachoma seldom leads to blindness. During the trials and for 6 months thereafter, the children lived in a boarding-school under good hygienic conditions. In both groups – the children who received treatment and those who were given placebos – the incidence of signs of active trachoma diminished greatly during the 7 months of observation. Judged by the number of positive findings of immunofluorescence of conjunctival smears, however, the persistence of the aetiological agent remained unchanged.