Causes of childhood blindness in Southern Ghana - a blind school survey

ABSTRACT

Examination of 129 inmates of Akropong School for the Blind revealed 80 per cent of them were blind. Corneal scars or phthisis bulbi; cataracts; glaucoma; and chorioretinitis were the major causes of blindness; being responsible for blindness in 43 per cent; 18 per cent; 16 per cent and 12 per cent respectively of children aged 15 years and below. Congenital rubella syndrome is probably more common in Southern Ghana than in the North and this may explain the relatively greater importance of cataracts and glaucoma in childhood blindness in the South compared with the North