Nutritional Blindness

Abstract

It is a tragic fact that in large areas of the world today despite the continuing advances in medical science many thousands of people, the majority young children, are going blind every year as a result of malnutrition. As will become apparent as this subject unfolds, we know enough about the ways in which deficiency of vitamin A and vitamins of the B complex destroy vision to be in a position to prevent much of the needless suffering. It will also be shown that there are important areas in this field where we are still ignorant, especially of the long term effects of malnutrition acting very early in life on certain parts of the eye.

Due not only to lack of time but also to the dearth of reliable data and information upon which to base an appraisal I shall not deal with certain aspects of this subject. For example, we do not yet know whether or not malnutrition plays any part in the disease process of trachoma or in the development of pterygium. We are also ignorant of the importance of an underlying deficiency of nutrients in making the conjunctiva and cornea more susceptible to infectious processes.

Leaving such speculations strictly aside my purpose is to summarize present knowledge of certain nutritional eye conditions and also perhaps to enlarge the horizon of your thinking by introducing you to some fresh problems and new concepts.