Eballé André Omgbwa, Owono Didier, Book Alphonse Um, Bella Assumpta Lucienne, Mvogo Come Ebana, Mba Nsom
Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.
Clin Ophthalmol. 2009;3:195-8. doi: 10.2147/opth.s4495. Epub 2009 Jun 2.
We report on a prospective study undertaken in April 2008, in 11 leper villages of the Southern Cameroon. Our aim was to determine the prevalence and the causes of bilateral blindness, low vision and unilateral blindness in the population of leprosy patients, irrespective of the clinical aspects of the illness.
Two hundred thirty-five known and newly diagnosed leprosy patients were examined. These patients included 149 cases (63.4%) of multibacillary leprosy and 86 cases (36.6%) of paucibacillary leprosy. There were 111 case of visual handicap, representing 47.2% of the population. These visual handicap cases were subdivided into 45 cases (19%) of bilateral blindness, 35 cases (15%) of unilateral blindness and 31 cases (13.2%) of low vision.
The prevalence of visual handicap among leprosy patients in Cameroon is too high. Causes in the majority of cases are age-related degenerative pathologies, and one third of cases are linked to the leprosy mycobacterium.
Discovering a cure for ophthalmic pathologies is important in order to provide a better quality of life for this particular population.
我们报告了一项于2008年4月在喀麦隆南部11个麻风病村庄开展的前瞻性研究。我们的目的是确定麻风病患者群体中双眼失明、视力低下和单眼失明的患病率及病因，而不考虑疾病的临床症状。
对235名已知和新诊断的麻风病患者进行了检查。这些患者包括149例（63.4%）多菌型麻风病和86例（36.6%）少菌型麻风病。有111例视力障碍患者，占总人数的47.2%。这些视力障碍病例分为45例（19%）双眼失明、35例（15%）单眼失明和31例（13.2%）视力低下。
喀麦隆麻风病患者中视力障碍的患病率过高。大多数病例的病因是与年龄相关的退行性病变，三分之一的病例与麻风分枝杆菌有关。
找到治疗眼科疾病的方法对于提高这一特殊人群的生活质量很重要。
