Corneal disease in rural Transkei.

A survey of external eye diseases was undertaken in Transkei; a total of 1,519 people were examined. A high incidence of climatic droplet keratopathy was found in the population, and this was a common cause of blindness in elderly men. Only 7 people had pterygia - all women. Both climatic droplet keratopathy and pterygia are believed to result from actinic damage, therefore the discrepancy noted in the prevalence of these two degenerative disorders was unexpected. Xerophthalmia was observed in 5 children, all of whom had mild forms of vitamin A deficiency eye disease. Although the number of children with overt vitamin A deficiency was small (0.58% of children aged less than 15 years), the importance of this finding lies in the possible pool of children without clinical disease but with low levels of vitamin A and therefore more likely to develop and to succumb to infections of the respiratory and alimentary systems. A further 20 people had corneal changes similar to those found in xerophthalmia; but since associated conjunctival signs were absent it is improbable that these changes were secondary to vitamin A deficiency.