Clinical findings, course, and progress of Bietti's corneal degeneration in the Dahlak islands.

Abstract

Bartolucci (1933) and Zanettin (I937) reported the presence of an unusual corneal disease in Italian Somaliland and the Dahlak Islands respectively. Falcone (I 954) published an excellent detailed account based on a large sample collected over I5 years in Mogadiscio. Coinciding with his observations, Guerra in Asmara had recorded similar findings; he communicated them to Bietti in Rome, who visited Asmara and Massawa and, linking the Eritrean cases with those of de Gaspare in Saudi Arabia, carried out an intensive study of the condition (Bietti, Guerra, and de Gaspare, I955). The lesion has since been called Bietti's corneal dystrophy by Gandolfi (I962) in Libya, by Etzine and Kaufmann (I964) in the Southern Transvaal, by Fretillere, Vedy, and Chovet (I967) in French Somaliland, and by Freedman (I972) in South West Africa. Freedman (i 965) described a somewhat similar, if less severe, condition, named by him Labrador keratopathy, which will be discussed later, and Wyatt (197I) reported identical cases in the North-West Territories of Canada. In 197I, the Scientific Exploration Society invited the writer to lead a small British expedition to the Dahlak Islands to study this disease in depth in village communities (Rodger, 1972). The expedition was mounted at the request of the Ethiopian Government.