A medical trial in Solomon Islands has found it's possible to safely treat large populations for trachoma and scabies simultaneously.
Photo: ©karelnoppe photography.All rights reserved.
Australian and Solomon Islands researchers medicated more than 26,000 people in Choiseul Province.
The entire population was given antibiotics to treat the highly infectious tropical diseases.
Professor Andrew Steer, from the University of Melbourne's Murdoch Children's Research Institute says administering the two antibiotics together had significant advantages.
"Providing two drugs at once for two diseases you are getting double the bang for your buck. And that we are using a single set of infrastructure to provide treatment for two separate neglected tropical diseases."
