Behind the scenes in Kiribati's fight to eliminate trachoma

In a small office in Kiribati’s capital Tarawa, Raebwebwe Taoaba and her team are busy making final preparations for a key moment in the fight to eliminate trachoma and scabies in the Pacific nation.

Raebwebwe, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services National Trachoma Coordinator, leads the team as it prepares for the country’s second mass drug administration (MDA).

Boxes are packed with drugs and posters promoting facial cleanliness and environmental improvement.

Photo credit: The Fred Hollows Foundation

The finishing touches are applied to freshly-painted height sticks that determine the correct dosage for children and adults.

These sticks and the boxes will soon arrive at local health clinics where newly-trained health workers will go door-to-door to administer the drugs to treat trachoma and scabies.

Photo credit: The Fred Hollows Foundation

In a country as geographically dispersed as Kiribati – trachoma elimination is a huge logistical exercise.

The nation’s 134,518 people live on 32 attols, taking up 811 square kilometres of land in the middle of 3.5 million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean – an area the size of Western Australia and South Australia combined.

“It’s a great challenge because we have to travel by boat and plane to reach the outer islands,” Raebwebwe says.

“We have one airline that as domestic flights but sometimes we only have one flight every week. Sometimes it can be cancelled,” she said.

For the past 10 years, The Foundation and the Ministry of Health and Medical Services have been working to eliminate trachoma in Kiribati.

In 2025, the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP), the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE) and the Macquarie Foundation supported a national MDA for both trachoma and scabies – a world-first integration that has positioned Kiribati as a leader in the control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

The first MDA in South Tarawa and Kiritimati Island was a success, exceeding population targets.

More than 200 community health workers have been trained to deliver the second MDA, including Agnes Bauro Nikuata.

Photo credit: The Fred Hollows Foundation

Agnes, who has worked for the Ministry of Health for more than 30 years and has previously supported WHO efforts to combat NTDs, is encouraged by the public response to the public awareness campaigns about trachoma and scabies elimination in the capital Tarawa.

“I think people believe there is help from trachoma and more and more cases can be seen in the eye clinic.

“People are trusting the trachoma program. You can see a lot of people in the early morning. Before the outpatient opens, a lot of people are sitting outside the eye clinic.”

At an official launch of the second MDA, where school children with a disability received doses of drugs to treat trachoma and scabies, Agnes and her team make final preparations to go door-to-door to treat people in South Tarawa.

“We’re ready for tomorrow,” she said.