PURPOSE To identify the causes of blindness and visual impairment among students in integrated schools for the blind in Nepal. METHODS A total of 778 students from all 67 integrated schools for the blind in Nepal were examined using the World Health Organization/Prevention of Blindness Eye Examination Record for Children with Blindness and Low Vision during the study period of 3 years. RESU...

PURPOSE To determine the causes of blindness and low vision in patients consulting a tertiary ophthalmologic center in northern Thailand. METHODS The study population included 2,951 new consecutive patients from the Department of Ophthalmology at University Hospital in Chiang-Mai, Thailand. Main outcome measures were blindness and low vision, which were defined according to World Health Organ...

Recent data suggest that a large number of people are blind in different parts of the world due to high refractive error because they are not using appropriate refractive correction. Refractive error as a cause of blindness has been recognized only recently with the increasing use of presenting visual acuity for defining blindness. In addition to blindness due to naturally occurring high refrac...

BACKGROUND Monocular blindness has not received much attention in developing countries despite its numerous disadvantages. A monocularly blind person is at high risk of being bilaterally blind. The objective of this study was to determine the causes of monocular blindness in the study population and to suggest strategies for prevention. METHODS A prospective study was conducted among new cons...

BACKGROUND There are no recent data on the prevalence and causes of blindness in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The aim of our study was to estimate the prevalence and causes of blindness and visual impairment in the population aged 50 years and above in the Occupied Palestinian Territories using the Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) survey method. METHODS AND FINDINGS Clu...

Dear Editor, Blindness is defined by the World Health Organization as visual acuity of less than 3/60 in the better eye. Overall, 39 million people are blind worldwide, out of which 1.4 million are children (less than 14 years of age). 1 Childhood blindness deserves public health attention as more than 50% of cases are avoidable, meaning that if effective measures are taken, quality of life can...

BACKGROUND Visual sciences have been progressing quickly in recent decades through globalization phenomenon. An enormous change has taken place in ocular health issues, however, there are various problems facing ophthalmic public health worldwide. In the previous years, the World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness in partnership launched the global ...

Blindness and low vision are major causes of morbidity and have profound effects on the quality of life for many people. They inhibit mobility and economic well-being of the individuals affected as well as their families. Childhood blindness (CBL) is one of the challenges faced by the world generally and developing countries in particular. In industrialised countries, certain mechanisms for nor...