title: Xerophthalmia and anterior-segment blindness among preschool-age children in El Salvador.
abstract: A countrywide prevalence survey of 9,508 children was conducted in El Salvador to determine the prevalence of anterior-segment abnormalities and magnitude of clinical vitamin A deficiency. Thirty-six children had corneal opacities, 56% of them secondary to trauma. Such traumatic corneal opacities were 19 times more frequent among urban than rural children, 57.6 vs. 3.1 per 1,000. Keratomalacia accounted for only 8% of all corneal opacities, and for one (and possibly two) of the five cases of bilateral anterior-segment blindness encountered. The prevalance of Bitot spots and vitamin-A-related corneal opacities was 5.3 and 3.2 per 10,000, respectively. There are an estimated 43 new surviving cases of vitamin-A-related corneal opacities in the country each year, one third of which result in bilateral blindness. Fifteen percent of all children examined had grossly purulent conjunctivitis.
mesh_terms: D001766:Blindness / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003231:Conjunctivitis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003316:Corneal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D003318:Corneal Opacity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D004544:El Salvador; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D014985:Xerophthalmia / Q000453:epidemiology*