Community interest in blindness was limited to simple charity for those afflicted until ophthalmology became a true science. Not until 1851 did Helmholtz develop the ophthalmoscope, and the first Professorship of Ophthalmology in the United States was not established until 1860 at Miami University. The first lecturer in ophthalmology at Yale, Dr. William Carmalt, was appointed in 1876. Since th...

O phthalmologists practising in the developed world at the beginning of the 21st century may be surprised to learn that visual loss from ophthalmia neonatorum was once a major public health problem. In England in the mid-1800s, there was a hospital devoted solely to the lavage of infants with gonococcal ophthalmia. Fortunately, the work of Crede, who developed prophylaxis with 2% silver nitrate...

(1) Purulent conjunctivitis affecting newborn babies is not invariably due to the gonococcus but may be caused by streptococci, staphylococci, or even B. coli and B. proteus. (2) Blindness from this cause in England has been reduced from approximately 25 per cent. of all blind children in 1920 to 9 per cent. in 1940. (3) This improvement began when the use of the Crede method of prophylaxis wit...

One hundred forty-nine mothers and 74 fathers of infants who presented at the Special Treatment Clinic (Nairobi) with ophthalmia neonatorum were evaluated. Neisseria gonorrhoeae was isolated from 60 (40%) of 149 mothers and Chlamydia trachomatis was isolated from 31 (21%). Twenty-six mothers (17.5%) had clinical evidence of endometritis or pelvic inflammatory disease. Mothers with endometritis ...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Very few studies have been done in India to determine the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis causing conjunctivitis using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods. Hence the prevalence of primary conjunctivitis due to C. trachomatis among individuals attending ophthalmic hospitals in Chennai was determined and compared with our earlier results. METHODS A total of 328 c...

Ophthalmia neonatorum, also called neonatal conjunctivitis, acquired during delivery can occur in the first 28 days of life. Commonly caused by the bacterial pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae, infection can lead to corneal scarring, perforation of the eye, and blindness. One approach that can be taken to prevent the disease is the use of an ophthalmic prophylaxis, which kills the bacteria on the s...