Full-thickness corneal grafts in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Ethiopia, as in many other African countries, blindness afflicts 4 per cent. of the population, with the partially-blind numbering up to 20 per cent. of the country's 20 million inhabitants. By far the most important cause of blindness in Africa is scarring of the cornea, not only because of its frequency (in European countries it accounts for less than 1 per cent. of the blind population, but in Kenya for 20 per cent.-Bisley, 1964) but also because such corneal scars normally develop in children who are otherwise quite healthy and have a full life-span ahead of them, whereas the other common blinding diseases (cataract, dystrophies, glaucoma, etc.) normally affect the aged when they have completed a lifetime of useful work. The source of this corneal scarring is manifold, but trachoma is generally a major factor, with an incidence in Ethiopia of between 30 and 100 per cent., 16 per cent. of whom have severe visual impairment in consequence (Guerra, 1951, 1965; Feitelberg, 1964; Vozza, Renna, and Felici, 1964).