Onchocerciasis Hugh R. Taylor Eric Pearlman DEFINITION Onchocerciasis, also known as “river blindness,” is an insect-borne disease caused by a nematode worm, Onchocerca volvulus, and transmitted by blackflies of the…

Corneal Opacification in the Developing World Praveen Nirmalan Prashant Garg Gullapalli N. Rao Corneal Opacification in Resource-Poor Countries Blindness is a major public health problem globally.1 In 2002 an estimated…

Pathogenesis and Control of Blinding Trachoma Jaya D. Chidambaram Chandler R. Dawson Thomas M. Lietman Trachoma is a chronic infectious keratoconjunctivitis that is a major cause of blindness in many…

Nutritional Blindness: Xerophthalmia and Keratomalacia Alfred Sommer Xerophthalmia and keratomalacia are the most common, most devastating ocular diseases attributable to nutritional deficiency. In general, nutritional blindness refers specifically to these…

Cataract and Delivery of Surgical Services in Developing Nations Larry Schwab Hugh R. Taylor Jamie La Nauze MAGNITUDE OF CATARACT BLINDNESS The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in 1990,…

Epidemiology of Ocular Trauma Tien Yin Wong James M. Tielsch Ocular trauma is an important, preventable public health problem worldwide. As many as half a million people in the world…

Ocular Protection from Solar Radiation Jonathan C. Javitt Hugh R. Taylor Each of us is exposed to some amount of sunlight. The extent of exposure can vary greatly depending on…

Measuring Vision and Vision Loss August Colenbrander PART 1. INTRODUCTION: ASPECTS OF VISION LOSS In epidemiology, as in individual health care, it is important to know both the cause and…

Screening: Relationship to Diagnosis and Therapy M. Cristina Leske Barbara S. Hawkins Leslie Hyman Päivi H. Miskala OVERVIEW Although primary prevention is directed to averting the initial occurrence of disease,…

Global Patterns of Blindness Lalit Dandona1 Professor Hannah Kuper2 Senior Lecturer Rakhi Dandona3 Additional Professor 1Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India; Professor, Global Health, Institute for Health Metrics…