SUMMARY One hundred and thirty Tanzanian children with corneal ulceration were clinically examined to determine the cause of the ulceration. 37% of the ulcers were associated with recent measles infection and 38% of the children had bilateral ulceration. Herpes simplex virus infection was the commonest cause of ulceration in the series, but vitamin A deficiency was the major cause of bilateral ulceration, subsequent blindness, and mortality in this series. Other significant causes of childhood corneal ulceration were the use of traditional eye medicines, confluent measles keratitis, and ophthalmia neonatorum. We discuss the various mechanisms by which measles causes corneal ulceration, and the priorities in prevention and management of corneal ulceration in African children.Xerophthalmia, a term used to describe the ocular findings caused by vitamin A deficiency, remains one of the six commonest blinding diseases in the world today and the commonest cause of blindness in children.' 2 The problem of childhood blindness due to xerophthalmia has been well established in Indonesia3 and other parts of Asia."7 In Africa, however, although 70% of blind school children are blind from corneal scarring,""' there is still uncertainty over the relative importance and interaction of factors such as measles infection," vitamin A deficiency, 2-8 herpes simplex keratitis,"' " and the use of traditional eye medicines82122 in causing childhood ulceration and corneal blindness.To investigate this problem we carried out a hospital based study with the aim of identifying by clinical means: (1) the major causes of corneal ulceration in Tanzanian children, (2) the mechanisms by which measles may lead to corneal ulceration, and (3) the major pathways leading to blindness from corneal scarring in children.
Patients and methodsOne of us (AF) examined 130 children aged 4 days to 10 years presenting with corneal ulceration to the eye All the children were admitted to hospital and basic demographic and historical information documented on a standard form. This included name, age, sex, village of residence, date ulcer first noted, history of measles, use of traditional eye medicines, recent diet, and history of night blindness. Ocular examination with a handlight, lid speculum, fluorescein, and, in co-operative children, slit-lamp microscopy was performed, and photographs were taken of the corneal ulcers. Nutritional status was determined by comparing their weight for age against the Harvard standards. The child was considered normal (well nourished) if his weight for age was greater than 80% of standard, underweight if 60-80% of standard, and marasmic if less than 60% weight for age.For this special investigation serum samples were drawn for chemical analysis on 41 consecutive cases of the 130 cases in this report. They were also obtained from three controls for each of the children with a diagnosis of measles-associated xerophthalmic corneal ulceration, matched on age, sex, and the presence of measles. The serum was kept frozen until shipm...