Childhood Visual Impairment and Unmet Low-vision Care in Blind School Students in Ghana
visual prognoses determined by the natural history of visual impairment, depending on the cause.
A number of national and international initiatives that addressed interventions aimed at child health and survival have also had a positive impact on childhood eye diseases and childhood blindness, notably EPI (1974) and the UN Millennium Development Goals (2000). There is reasonable correlation between the prevalence of blindness in children and under-five mortality rates. Since Vision 2020 was launched WHO/Lions have established a child eye care center in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital with well-trained pediatric and low-vision teams and equipment and more affordable low-vision devices.
When Ghana has done away with corneal blindness, cataract would be the commonest preventable cause of blindness. Although the optical results of treating childhood cataract have improved dramatically over the last two decades, we are still challenged by the management of amblyopia and long-term follow-up, which is crucial for ensuring that
1. Gyasi ME, Setting the pace for Vision 2020 in Ghana: the case of Bawku Eye Care Program, Community Eye Health, 2006;19(59):46–7.
2. Ajaiyeoba AI, Isawawumi MA, Adeoye AO, Oluleye TS, Prevalence and causes of blindness and visual impairment among school children in South Western Nigeria, Int Ophthalmol, 2005;26(4–5):121–5.
3. Ntim-Amponsah CT, Amoaku WMK, Causes of Visual Impairment and Unmet Low Vision Care in a School for the
the child has optimal optical intervention. In the future, we shall still be challenged by the non-preventable causes, and also add others, such as retinopathy of prematurity, found in the industrialized countries. Vision 2020 is an opportunity that gives hope to the blind and low-vision children that live difficult lives in the developing world. The number of ‘blind person-years’ resulting from blindness in childhood is second only to that from cataract and makes control of childhood blindness a Vision 2020 priority. Global achievement of Vision 2020 with regard to childhood blindness and low-vision rehabilitation will not be realized if sub-Saharan Africa is left behind. More support is required from within and without for intervention. We look forward to moving forward in the right direction, by using basic research on low vision and blindness for planning purposes to research and achieve sustained interventional programs. The challenge of putting the knowledge and skills acquired to control avoidable childhood blindness and enhance vision for the incurable with low vision confronts the service providers. One of the strategies is to plan and execute strong advocacy programs that will appeal to the hearts and minds of all who are able to support. n
Blind, Int Ophthalmol, 2008;28:317–23.
4. State of the World’s Children 2009, UNICEF, December, 2008. 5. World Health Organization, Global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness, WHO/PBL/97.61, Geneva: WHO, 1997.
6. Gilbert CE, Ellwein LB, Refractive Error study in Children Study Group, Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 2008;49:877–81.
7. Sloan L, Reading aids for the partially sighted – factors which determine success or failure, Arch Ophthalmol, 1968;76:101–5. 8. Silver J, Gilbert CE, Spoerer P, Foster A, Low vision in east
African blind school students: Need for optical low vision services, Br J Ophthalmol, 1995;79:814–20.
9. Low Vision Services Provided by the Low Vision Project- Kenya. Available at:
http://icevi.org/publications/icevix/workshops/ 3FL02
0262.html. (accessed October 2005).
10. Akafo SK, Hagan M, Causes of childhood blindness in Southern Ghana–a blind school survey, Ghana Med J, 1990;24:113–9.
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