Causes of blindness in children attending blind school in north Karnataka part of India

Dr Raghavendra Ijeri,Dr Suresh Navani,Dr Ashwini Navani,Dr Jyoti Rc

doi:10.17511/jooo.2019.i07.06

Dr Raghavendra Ijeri, Dr Suresh Navani + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.17511/jooo.2019.i07.06

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Abstract

Aims: To find the causes of blindness in children of blind schools in North Karnataka part of India. Settings and Design: Observational study. Methods and Material: Total of 92 children of less than 16 years of age were examined. This study was conducted in 2 blind schools in 2 districts of north Karnataka. The causes were divided in accordance with the world health organization (WHO) programme for prevention of blindness proforma. Results: Congenital eye lesions affecting the globe were seen in 33.7%, Retinal and corneal cause’s 20.65% each and lenticular causes around 8.7%. Nearly 23% causes for blindness were preventable or treatable. Conclusions: Congenital ocular anomalies were the leading cause for blindness; Preventable and treatable cause were also significant in number. Improvement in research to find congenital anomalies, improvement in nutrition, vaccination and early diagnosis and management of treatable diseases are required to decrease childhood blindness.

Highlights

Blindness in children is an important health problem
A total of 92 children were examined at the two schools in north Karnataka
Among 92 children who had blindness, anophthalmos, microphthalmos, and phthisis were the most frequent ocular defects leading to visual loss (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Vision 2020 –Right to sight programme aims to reduce blindness among children by the year 2020. This programme aims to reduce the prevalence of avoidable vision impairment by 25% from 2010 to 2019 [1]. It is estimated that there were 1.5 million blind children in the world, more than million children have low vision and more than million children are visually disabled [2]. Children with multiple disabilities are usually not admitted to these schools they are usually home bound. Obtaining statistics of such children is very difficult; surveying every house for blind child will be only method to find out the true number of blind children. Blind school survey may not give the true estimate for the causes of blindness but it may give the main causes for blindness

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Conclusion