Child Eye Health Research Projects

Globally more than 70 million children aged 0-14 years are vision impaired, 1.4 million of whom are blind. In low-resource settings approximately half of this blindness is avoidable.

Some of the major challenges in child eye health are:

1. Children with poor vision do not complain
2. There is a lack of trained staff and screening at community and primary health care level
3. There is often a lack of awareness in the community about child eye health
4. Late presentation and treatment can have life-long impact on a child’s visual potential

Our research in child eye health addresses these major challenges, focusing on evidence-based interventions to support early diagnosis and treatment of child eye problems to ensure that children have the best vision possible and reduce avoidable loss of vision and life.

Primary Eye Care for Children

We aim to transform the way child eye care is delivered in low-resource countries, so that every child health system includes eye health at primary care level. This will provide comprehensive child eye health care, enabling children to thrive.

Retinoblastoma (Rb)

Retinoblastoma (Rb) is the most common and most devastating eye cancer that affects children worldwide. There are 8,000 new cases every year and if diagnosis is delayed or treatment is not available the child will die.

Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP)

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a potentially blinding eye disorder that affects premature babies. It has been greatly reduced in high resource settings due to improvements in neonatal care and efficient screening and treatment. However it is an increasing problem in low resource settings as more premature babies survive due to increased access to neonatal care but without access to good ROP services. Our research aims to prevent blindness from ROP through improving the screening and diagnosis of ROP adapted for low resource settings.

Child Eye Health Research Projects

Globally more than 70 million children aged 0-14 years are vision impaired, 1.4 million of whom are blind. In low-resource settings approximately half of this blindness is avoidable.

Some of the major challenges in child eye health are:

1. Children with poor vision do not complain
2. There is a lack of trained staff and screening at community and primary health care level
3. There is often a lack of awareness in the community about child eye health
4. Late presentation and treatment can have life-long impact on a child’s visual potential

Our research in child eye health addresses these major challenges, focusing on evidence-based interventions to support early diagnosis and treatment of child eye problems to ensure that children have the best vision possible and reduce avoidable loss of vision and life.

Primary Eye Care for Children

We aim to transform the way child eye care is delivered in low-resource countries, so that every child health system includes eye health at primary care level. This will provide comprehensive child eye health care, enabling children to thrive.

Retinoblastoma (Rb)

Retinoblastoma (Rb) is the most common and most devastating eye cancer that affects children worldwide. There are 8,000 new cases every year and if diagnosis is delayed or treatment is not available the child will die.

Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP)

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a potentially blinding eye disorder that affects premature babies. It has been greatly reduced in high resource settings due to improvements in neonatal care and efficient screening and treatment. However it is an increasing problem in low resource settings as more premature babies survive due to increased access to neonatal care but without access to good ROP services. Our research aims to prevent blindness from ROP through improving the screening and diagnosis of ROP adapted for low resource settings.