Childhood Visual Impairment and Unmet Low-vision Care in Blind School Students in Ghana

Most causes of childhood blindness in Ghana are avoidable. Over 40 % of the students in the school for the blind in Ghana have functional residual vision that requires low-vision care. Corneal blindness is the commonest form, followed by cataract. Retinal blindness is rare and is usually from hereditary or congenital causes. The Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI) in the Ghana health service has been very successful, with measles coverage for under one-year-olds of 95 %. This should now translate into a decline in measles-related corneal blindness, a common preventable occurrence. This then brings challenges in cataract management into focus. Provision of sustainable intervention services for low-vision care in children is a priority for the Prevention of Childhood Blindness program in Ghana. Barriers to access range from parents’ negative perceptions, societal/cultural misconceptions, and inadequate resources, to absence of collaboration and coordination between low-vision care providers and weak national support. Clients usually come from families within the lower socioeconomic groups and often find the low-vision devices unaffordable. A successful program for intervention is more likely to succeed when it is subsidized, at least until a reasonable impact has been made. One must, however, strike a good balance between cost recovery, which is more likely to ensure sustainability of the program, and subsidization.