Abstract
The prevalence and causes of visual impairment and blindness were determined in 29 048 children < 16 years in all households of 5 camps for internally displaced people in Khartoum State, Sudan. After house-to-house visits by trained health care workers, 916 children received further assessment, 2.7% of whom were found to be blind, 1.6% to be severely visually impaired and 5.5% to be visually impaired, according to World Health Organization criteria. The prevalence of blindness in children in the camps was estimated as 1.4 per 1000 children. The leading causes of blindness were found to be corneal opacities (40.0%), mainly due to vitamin A deficiency, followed by amblyopia (32.5%).
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Adolescent
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Amblyopia / complications
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Amblyopia / epidemiology
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Blindness / diagnosis
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Blindness / epidemiology*
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Blindness / etiology*
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Cataract / complications
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Cataract / epidemiology
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Causality
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Child
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Child Welfare / statistics & numerical data
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Child, Preschool
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Corneal Opacity / complications
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Corneal Opacity / epidemiology
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Health Surveys
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Humans
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Infant
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Population Surveillance
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Prevalence
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Referral and Consultation / statistics & numerical data
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Refugees / statistics & numerical data*
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Severity of Illness Index
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Sex Distribution
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Strabismus / complications
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Strabismus / epidemiology
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Sudan / epidemiology
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Vision Screening
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Visual Acuity
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Vitamin A Deficiency / complications
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Vitamin A Deficiency / epidemiology