Survey of ophthalmic conditions in rural Lesotho

Abstract

The first survey of ocular problems in rural Lesotho was conducted by a visiting eye team and consisted of an examination of 1266 ophthalmic clinic patients at 15 representative sites throughout the country. The most common ocular conditions encountered were: conjunctivitis, refractive error, vernalis, senile cataract, glaucoma, corneal opacities and trauma. This disease pattern differs from most developing African nations for reasons of climate, geography and diet. The absence of disciform macular degeneration, narrow-angle glaucoma, and rarity of retinal detachment was noted. The educational impact of the survey, and its importance for future planning are suggested.

Eye diseases in northern Nigeria: Prevalence, age and sex differences

“…For the majority of the ophthalmic conditions, there are no significant differences with regard to sex prevalence. A similar finding was reported by Gordon and Mokete (1980). As already noted, there are highly significant age and sex differences in the prevalence of ocular injuries.…”

“…Comparative prevalence figures of eye conditions for England (Shaw et al, 1986), Lesotho (Gordon and Mokete, 1980), Sweden (Linner, 1973), American Indians in the U.S.A. (Bettman, 1972), and northern Nigeria are shown in Table 1. The patterns of eye disease prevalence for the various countries appear to be significantly different for most ophthalmic conditions.…”

“…Even where age and sex differences are discussed, they are for a comparatively limited number of eye diseases and the significances of these differences are usually not statistically tested (cf. Freedman, 1973;Friederich, 1982;Bettman, 1972;Gordon and Mokete, 1980;Linner, 1973;Mann, 1972;Shaw et al, 1986). The purpose of my research is to define the prevalence of eye diseases in northern Nigeria and to statistically test the significance of the age and sex differences, if any, in the prevalence of a wide range of ophthalmic conditions.…”

Exfoliation syndrome in Nigeria

“…Previously thought to be rare in Africa, recent reports suggest that it is common in Ethiopia,5 where 25% of open-angle glaucoma patients had XFS and in the Bantus of South Africa 6. It has also been reported in a retrospective clinic-based study in the Congo7 and population studies in Lesotho 8. In Zimbabwe,9 a prevalence of 7.4% has been reported among blind patients.…”

Retinal detachment in developing countries

“…5 It has frequently been reported that black Africans have a low incidence of RD. [6][7][8][9][10][11] However, these studies are based on hospital or clinic attendances, which can be misleading. In a poor country, with limited facilities for the management of RD, patients may be less likely to attend an eye clinic than patients in a wealthy country, with better health care systems.…”