Blindness and visual impairment in a region endemic for onchocerciasis in the Central African Republic
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Date
1997Author
Schwartz, EC
Huss, R
Hopkins, A
Dadjim, B
Madjitoloum, P
Hénault, C
Klauss, V
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
AIMS:
A population based survey of blindness and visual impairment was conducted in the district of Bossangoa, Central African Republic.
METHODS:
A total of 48 communities were randomly selected, and 6086 people examined.
RESULTS:
The prevalence of blindness (visual acuity in the better eye less than 3/60) was 2.2%, and visual impairment 3.0% (6/24 to 3/60 in the better eye). The major causes of blindness were onchocerciasis (73.1%), cataract (16.4%), trachoma (4.5%), and glaucoma (2.2%).
CONCLUSION:
Around 95.5% of all blindness could potentially have been prevented or treated. Ivermectin mass distribution is hoped to prevent 50% of all forms of visual loss in the future
URI
http://hinari-gw.who.int/whalecomwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/whalecom0/pubmed/9274406http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/35558
Citation
Br J Ophthalmol. 1997 Jun;81(6):443-7Publisher
University Eye Clinic LMU, Munich, Germany
Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10377]