Childhood blindness

Childhood blindness is a general term used to embrace all occurrences of blindness in children.

The main cause is xerophthalmia, an eye disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency that leads to softening and opacity of the eye lens and eventually to irreversible blindness. Xerophthalmia can be cured by administering vitamin A capsules to balance the deficiency before blindness occurs.
Other causes include: measles, rubella, congenital cataract, congenital glaucoma, and retinopathy of prematurity (a potentially blinding eye disorder that primarily affects premature infants).

Therefore, the improvement of primary eye care for children to detect and treat causes of blindness is an important aspect of prevention.