Fifty years ago, these men set out to defeat an insidious disease. A fortnight ago, they did |
Fifty years ago, these men set out to defeat an insidious disease. A fortnight ago, they did
May 17, 2026 — 5:04am
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Last Christmas Eve, I received the best present ever. It was news that Australia had submitted a dossier to the World Health Organisation seeking confirmation of the elimination of trachoma – a bacterial eye infection that is the world’s leading infectious cause of preventable blindness – in the nation.
On April 29, WHO declared Australia had become the 30th country to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem. Until now, Australia had been the only developed nation that still had endemic rates of trachoma. And all those affected are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, largely as a result of repeated episodes of trachoma bacterial infection due to poor sanitation.
This milestone was reached almost 50 years to the day that I started work on trachoma. On a bit of a whim, I had asked Professor Fred Hollows if I could join him on his next trip to Bourke, in the NSW outback. Fred would travel there for a long weekend two or three times a year to provide free eye care and eye surgery for Aboriginal people.
It was 1976, and Fred was profoundly concerned about equity and the injustice of the desperate state of so many Aboriginal people and their communities.
I was surprised when a little later I received a call from Fred as he barked down the phone: “Taylor, I want you to be in Port Augusta, 19 May.
“I want you to spend two weeks working with me as we start up this new national program on Indigenous eye health.”
I didn’t know at the time that he and the College of Ophthalmologists were in talks with the Commonwealth........