STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In the year that's now ending, some countries made a lot of progress against disease. It is, to be clear, exceedingly rare that the whole world eradicates an illness. Vaccines played a huge role in fighting smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared to be wiped out in 1980. But each year, some countries say they are free of disease, and that happened nine times this year. For example, Egypt became malaria free. Brazil eliminated a disfiguring disease called elephantiasis, and one country got rid of a disease that can cause blindness, as NPR's Gabrielle Emanuel reports.
GABRIELLE EMANUEL, BYLINE: A young boy in Pakistan, Asad Aslam Khan, would visit his father's farming village outside of Lahore. It's surrounded by sugarcane and rice fields. But what Khan remembers is all the people who could not farm.
ASAD ASLAM KHAN: I used to feel very bad that this patient is having red eye, watery eye, and he is in pain. That was a miserable situation.
EMANUEL: Miserable because they had a condition called trachoma. It's caused by repeated bacterial infections as a child. And as a result, in adulthood, the eyelashes turn inward and scratch the surface of the eye. It's known for being incredibly painful and for nearly 2 million people globally, it causes blurry vision and eventually blindness.
KHAN: And I couldn't do at that time much about them. I wish I could do something for those poor people.
EMANUEL: Now, fast-forward some 50 years, and Khan, who is an ophthalmologist and chair of the government's Trachoma Task Force, has done something.
KHAN: By the grace of Almighty Allah, we now have become trachoma free country.
EMANUEL: The World Health Organization made it official. Over the years, 21 countries have eliminated trachoma. Anthony Solomon is with WHO.
ANTHONY SOLOMON: It's a massive effort that requires mobilization of hundreds or thousands of health care workers and other personnel.
EMANUEL: He says there's a pretty standard elimination strategy. Antibiotics given en mass to stop the infection, a simple surgery to reposition the in-turned eyelashes for those already with advanced trachoma. And the final piece of the strategy - improving people's access to running water for face washing and toilets so the bacteria behind trachoma can't spread. The toilets weren't initially a hit, says Munazza Gillani of the nongovernmental organization Sightsavers, which helped build latrines. People were used to relieving themselves in an open field, she says.
MUNAZZA GILLANI: They found it really strange to have a toilet within their homes and they thought it's not a hygienic practice.
EMANUEL: So, she says, they started by putting toilets in places people trusted where they could gain acceptance.
GILLANI: We first built them in the mosques and schools and then in some communal places.
EMANUEL: Eventually, she says, people started liking the toilets. Khan says a lot has changed in two decades. When the elimination campaign got underway, hundreds of thousands of people were treated for active trachoma. Today, trachoma is no longer a public health concern in Pakistan. They've succeeded.
KHAN: Everyone was so happy. Many had tears in their eyes. I can't explain their - the jubilation on their faces, the smile on their faces.
EMANUEL: Khan says as a boy, he never expected to see this moment in his lifetime. Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR News.
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