Brief communication

There are about 37 million blind people in the world. In Ethiopia there are 1.15 million blind people, corneal blindness accounted for 19%of cases. The objective is to identify determinants and pattern of corneal blindness in Goro district, Gurage Zone in Southern Ethiopia. A cross sectional descriptive study and multistage sampling technique were used to identify the study units and subjects. The prevalence of blindness in the study area was 1.5% and out of which corneal blindness accounted for 20.8 % of the blindness. Trachomal had caused 80 % of the corneal blindness. Determinants like application of herbal medicine, recurrent painful red eye or ocular trauma was not reported to cause bilateral corneal blindness. The prevalence of monocular blindness was 1.89%. Corneal blindness accounted for 36.7%of the cases. Trauma and trachoma were found in 31.6 % and 15.8 % of unilateral corneal blindness respectively. Trachoma is the leading cause of bilateral corneal blindness. Non trachomatous corneal opacity is the major cause of unilateral corneal blindness. Health education and training mid level health workers on the management of treatable and preventable cause of corneal blindness is highly recommended. [Ethiop.J.Healt