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Childhood blindness is an important contribution to the national prevalence of the disability of blindness. [3] Blindness in children can be defined as a visual acuity of <3/60 in the eye with better vision of a child under 16 years of age. [4]
Congenital blindness is a hereditary disease and can be treated by gene therapy. Visual loss in children or infants can occur either at the prenatal stage (during the time of conception or intrauterine period) or postnatal stage (immediately after birth). [3] There are multiple possible causes of congenital blindness.
Childhood cataracts are the primary cause of childhood blindness. [4] Childhood cataracts make up 7.4% to 15.3% of blindness in kids. [ 4 ] The prevalence of childhood cataracts ranges from 0.63/10,000 to 9.74/10,000 children, with a median of 1.71. [ 6 ]
Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness worldwide and is a major cause of childhood mortality. [1] Each year, approximately 250,000 to 500,000 malnourished children in the developing world go blind from a VAD, with about half of whom dying within a year of losing their sight. [2]
ONH is the single leading cause of permanent legal blindness in children in the western world. [12] The incidence of ONH is increasing, although it is difficult to estimate the true prevalence. Between 1980 and 1999, the occurrences of ONH in Sweden increased four-fold to 7.2 per 100,000, while all other causes of childhood blindness had declined.
Cataracts are the leading cause of child and adult blindness that doubles in prevalence with every ten years after the age of 40. [57] Consequently, today cataracts are more common among adults than in children. [56] That is, people face higher chances of developing cataracts as they age.
Congenital cataracts are responsible for nearly 10% of all vision loss in children worldwide. Congenital cataracts are one of the most common treatable causes of visual impairment and blindness during infancy, with an estimated prevalence of 1 to 6 cases per 10,000 live births.
The causes are vitamin A deficiency during pregnancy, followed by low transfer of vitamin A during lactation and infant/child diets low in vitamin A or beta-carotene. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] The prevalence of pre-school age children who are blind due to vitamin A deficiency is lower than expected from incidence of new cases only because childhood vitamin A ...