title: Causes of blindness in children in the blind schools of Ethiopia.
abstract: A total of 721 children in the six schools for the blind in Ethiopia were studied. In 1988-1989 histories were taken to ascertain the predisposing factors and ophthalmological examinations and records were used to determine the causes of blindness. Ninety-five per cent of those examined had bilateral blindness, 12% did not know how they had become blind and, of those who provided information on how they became blind, 21% knew that they were born blind, 30% implicated measles as being responsible, and 13% implicated 'mitch' which is an Amharic term used to describe a very wide range of nonspecific and vague illnesses of which measles probably constitutes a significant proportion. Seventy per cent of the blindness was due to either corneal opacity or phthisis bulbi. Of those with non-congenital bilateral corneal opacity or phthisis bulbi, 40% were preceded by measles and 17% by mitch. A study of 66 adults in the handicraft and skill-training centres attached to the blind schools indicated that the principal predisposing factors of blindness were mitch (30%), smallpox (15%), cataract (12%), and traditional eye medicine (11%). Seventy percent had corneal scars of phthisis bulbi and 14% cataract.
authors.affiliation: Ethiopian Nutrition Institute, Addis Ababa.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wolde-Gebriel
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gebru
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: West
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001766:Blindness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015984:Causality; D002648:Child; D005002:Ethiopia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009887:Ophthalmoscopy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014829:Vocational Education