Malnutrition causes blindness
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Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of childhood blindness.
When a child doesn’t receive enough Vitamin A they become vulnerable to a whole range of diseases. And when they get sick – with a bout of measles, an infection or severe diarrhoea – their little bodies can’t cope.
Their bodies start to shut down and they lose their sight.
Many children between one and six years old suffering from severe illness combined with Vitamin A deficiency go irreversibly blind within a matter of days.
What’s devastating is more than half of the children who go blind, die within two years of losing their sight.
Niry’s story
When Niry was brought from Madagascar to a CBM eye clinic, her eyes were weeping uncontrollably.
She was at the end stage of a disease caused by Vitamin A deficiency.
In fact, our ophthalmologist described Niry’s eyes as melting. One eye was already lost.
Thankfully, Niry received treatment straight away in the form of massive doses of Vitamin A and a nutrition program to improve her health.
In just a few days the sight in her remaining eye was saved.
Niry is proof of the difference you can make in a child’s life simply be providing Vitamin A.
Facts about childhood blindness
A wide range of causes is responsible for childhood blindness:
• 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. • Other causes include: measles which can scar the cornea, rubella, congenital cataract, congenital glaucoma, and retinopathy of prematurity.
Other facts:
• According to the WHO, half of those who go blind will die in the next 12 months.• One annual dose of Vitamin A – three capsules – is enough to prevent a child from becoming blind. This costs just 60 cents.• Vitamin A is found naturally in dark green, leafy vegetables, orange fruits and vegetables, meat, eggs and milk. Babies get Vitamin A from breast milk.
CBM workers educate communities about what readily available food they can eat to get Vitamin A.
For more information about cataract visit the World Health Organisation or Vision 2020