Open Journal of Ophthalmology, 2022, 12, 218-232

https://www.scirp.org/journal/ojoph
ISSN Online: 2165-7416
ISSN Print: 2165-7408

Patterns of Eye Diseases among Children

Visiting Two Tertiary-Level Facilities in
Zimbabwe: A Retrospective Records Review
(2018-2020) at Sekuru Kaguvi and Richard
Morris Eye Hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo

Busisiwe Mzyece1, Orapeleng Malemane2, Andrew Chimatira3, Boniface Macheka4

1
Council for the Blind, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
2
Ministry of Health and Child Care, Harare, Zimbabwe
3
Community Medicine Department, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
4
Ministry of Health and Child Care, Harare, Zimbabwe

How to cite this paper: Mzyece, B., Ma- Abstract

lemane, O., Chimatira, A. and Macheka, B.
(2022) Patterns of Eye Diseases among Child- Approximately 19 million children worldwide present with visual impairments
ren Visiting Two Tertiary-Level Facilities in resulting from eye diseases and physical causes and, 1.4 million are estimated
Zimbabwe: A Retrospective Records Review
to be totally blind. Visual impairment among children continues to be a growing
(2018-2020) at Sekuru Kaguvi and Richard
Morris Eye Hospitals in Harare and Bu-
public health concern globally with low-income and middle-income countries
lawayo. Open Journal of Ophthalmology, 12, (LMICs) being disproportionately affected. In Zimbabwe, prevalence of blind-
218-232. ness, frequency and types of eye conditions children present with are not
https://doi.org/10.4236/ojoph.2022.123021
known. The purpose of this study was to determine the patterns of eye disease
Received: March 23, 2022
among children attending the two tertiary facilities in Zimbabwe (Sekuru Kaguvi,
Accepted: August 16, 2022 Harare and Richard Morris, Bulawayo) and identifying the major eye conditions
Published: August 19, 2022 that children who attend the Harare and Bulawayo paediatric hospitals present
with. A retrospective study design was conducted where hospital records con-
Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
taining patient data about age, gender, visual acuity and clinical diagnosis was re-
This work is licensed under the Creative trieved and reviewed. The study had a sample size of 10066 children aged 15
Commons Attribution International years and below analysed between January 2018 and September 2020. Descrip-
License (CC BY 4.0).
tive statistics were run using Stata statistical software and SPSS version 23. The
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
study was approved by the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe (MRCZ).
Open Access
Study results showed that the most frequent eye conditions are allergic con-
junctivitis, eye injuries, lid pathology and refractive error while the least pre-
valent eye conditions included retinoblastoma, anterior segment disease and
uveitis. The most affected age group was children between 0 to 5 years and 6

DOI: 10.4236/ojoph.2022.123021 Aug. 19, 2022 218 Open Journal of Ophthalmology

 B. Mzyece et al.

to 12 years respectively. Males had higher eye disease frequencies than fe-
males. Results show a downward trend in the number of children who present
with eye conditions per year under study. In 2018, frequency of eye conditions
was 56.1% while in 2019, it was 33% and lastly, 10.9% in 2020.

Keywords
Blindness, Visual Impairment, Childhood, Visual Acuity

1. Introduction and Study Background

Childhood blindness refers to a group of diseases and conditions which occur
during childhood or early adolescence, and, if left untreated, may result in
blindness or severe visual impairment [1]. Globally, 36.0 million people are blind
which translated to a crude prevalence of blindness of 0.48% in 2015 [2]. It is
further estimated that 1.4 million children in the world are blind [3] . Therefore, vis-
ual impairment among children continues to be a growing global public health con-
cern with low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) being dispropor-
tionately affected. Most LMICs lack effective screening programmes and inter-
ventions for children presenting with eye conditions and there is need to expand
services to marginalized groups. It is increasingly difficult to estimate the burden
of childhood blindness and severe visual impairment in Zimbabwe. This is mainly
due to scarce data and heterogeneous data collection methods used. Thus, preva-
lence estimates are imprecise in much of southern Africa.
In Zimbabwe, the causes of blindness according to the Zimbabwe National Eye
Health Strategy (2014 to 2018) are congenital cataracts, glaucoma, eye trauma,
measles and retinoblastoma [4]. The strategy also reported a strong correlation
between the prevalence of childhood blindness and under-five mortality rates, which
raises the need to constantly interrogate the associations between these variables.
Furthermore, paediatric eye services are lacking in Zimbabwe with most of the
cases being attended at the two tertiary level paediatric eye hospitals, Sekuru
Kaguvi Eye Hospital and Richard Morris Hospital located in Harare and Bula-
wayo respectively. As a result, only the most severe cases end up being given at-
tention and priority while the majority are missed at primary care level which
brings to the core of the importance of community screening for visual impair-
ment among children in the country. However, there have been efforts to im-
prove eye care among children in Zimbabwe. Two non-governmental organiza-
tions, the Christian Blind Mission (since 1974) and Council for the Blind (since
1955) have been supporting Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) in the
provision of eye care services at tertiary eye units in the two major cities of Ha-
rare and Bulawayo, situated in the northern and southern parts of the country
respectively. This report documents details of a study conducted by the Zim-
babwe Council for the Blind to determine the patterns of eye conditions among
children presenting at the two major eye hospitals, Sekuru Kaguvi Eye Hospital

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B. Mzyece et al.

and Richard Morris Hospital.

1.1. Statement of the Problem

The prevalence of blindness among children in Zimbabwe is not known. The
frequency and type of eye conditions that children present with in the eye units
are also unknown. Knowing these, will help policy makers, programme manag-
ers and implementers to make evidence based decisions. It is against this back-
ground that Council for the Blind and MoHCC decided to do a quantitative analy-
sis of the data that has been collected at two major paediatric eye units in the
country over three years.

1.2. Study Justification

The study was deemed significant in the broader context of the Zimbabwe Na-
tional Eye Health Strategy, because the country seeks to reduce avoidable blind-
ness by 80% through the implementation of evidence-based eye health inter-
ventions. Furthermore, the study adds to the body of knowledge of the burden
of childhood blindness in the country. The findings from this study will contrib-
ute to the development and design of appropriate and tailor-made eye health in-
terventions and inform future paediatric eye health programming. This study
also seeks to inform other broader community based studies which will measure
the prevalence rate of childhood blindness.

1.3. Specific Study Objectives

The following were the specific objectives of the study:
• To identify the major eye conditions that children who attend Sekuru Kaguvi
and Richard Morris Hospitals present with.
• To identify patterns of eye conditions that children who visit the Sekuru Kaguvi
and Richard Morris Eye Hospitals present with.

1.4. Specific Research Questions

The study sought to answer the following research questions:
• What are the major eye conditions that children who attend the Sekuru Kaguvi
and Richard Morris paediatric hospitals present with?
• What are the patterns of the eye conditions among children who visit the Sekuru
Kaguvi and Richard Morris Hospitals?

2. Research Methodology
2.1. Study Design
A hospital-based retrospective study aimed at ascertaining the profile of child-
hood eye conditions was conducted in Harare and Bulawayo. Hospital archived
data of patients aged 15 years and below presenting at Richard Morris Hospital
in Bulawayo and Sekuru Kaguvi Eye Hospital in Harare between 1 January 2018
and 30 September 2020, were electronically retrieved and retrospectively re-

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 B. Mzyece et al.

viewed. This review was quantitative in its orientation. The study protocol and
ethical considerations were obtained and approved by the Medical Research
Council of Zimbabwe, Regulatory Authority reference number MRCZ/E/291. All
the data was anonymous to protect the identity of the patients in the study. In
each of the study sites, data was extracted by ophthalmic nurses trained in data
extraction and research ethics and the trained nurses were supervised by the
ophthalmologists in their respective centres with a biostatistician and research
methodologists from the University of Zimbabwe who provided technical back-
stopping.

2.2. Study Setting

Data for this study was collected from patient registers kept at Sekuru Kaguvi
(Harare) and Richard Morris (Bulawayo) eye hospitals. Sekuru Kaguvi Eye Hos-
pital is located in the Northern part of Zimbabwe in the capital city of Harare.
Sekuru Kaguvi Eye Hospital serves the northern provinces of the country and
include Mashonaland provinces, Manicaland, parts of Midlands Province and
parts of Masvingo. On the other hand, Richard Morris Hospital is located in the
second largest city of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo and mostly serves the Matabeleland
provinces, parts of Midlands and Masvingo provinces. The two hospitals were
purposively sampled because they are the main referral centres for eye diseases
and complications in Zimbabwe offering specialist eye services.

2.3. Study Population and Sample

The study population comprised of 10066 children (0 to 15 years) who were at-
tended at Sekuru Kaguvi and Richard Morris during study timelines. From the
two hospitals, a total of 10,066 children records for the period January 2018 to Sep-
tember 2020 were extracted and reviewed.

2.4. Data Extraction and Analysis

Information extracted from the patient records, included age of the patient at
presentation, sex, visual acuity, and clinical diagnosis. Normally, one main di-
agnosis is reported for each individual consulting at the hospital and repre-
sents the main reason why the patient is seeking services. The clinical diagnoses
were grouped according to the appropriate anatomical categories, for example,
eyelid diseases, orbital diseases, neuro-ophthalmic diseases, refractive errors
etc. Data was cleaned and descriptive statistics were run using Stata Statistical
software.

3. Results
3.1. Demography of the Participants
All the 10,066 patient records between January 2018 to September 2020 were ex-
tracted from Sekuru Kaguvi and Richard Morris eye clinic registers and sub-
sequently reviewed.

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B. Mzyece et al.

There were 4785 (47.5%) from the Bulawayo records and 5281 (52.5%) from
the Harare records. The median age of the children attending both eye hospitals
was 5years old and the range was 2 to 15 years old. The demographic profile of
the patients in the study is presented in Table 1 below.

3.2. Frequency of Eye Conditions

The study sought to identify the eye conditions that were common amongst the
study population. After reviewing the data from the two sources mentioned above,
the frequencies of the eye conditions were as follows.

Table 1. Demographic details of study participants.

Characteristic Number of patients, n (%)

Center
Bulawayo 4785 (47.5)
Harare 5 81 (52.5)

Gender
Female 4360 (43.3)
Male 5706 (56.7)

Age, median (IQR) years 5 (2 - 10)

Age group (years)

0-5 5060 (50.3)
6 - 12 3924 (39.0)
13 - 15 1082 (10.8)

Figure 1. Disease frequency by condition.

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 B. Mzyece et al.

From Figure 1 above, it can be noted that allergic conjunctivitis was the most
frequent eye condition totaling 2422 and constituted 24.1% of the study popula-
tion. This was followed by eye injury, 1499 (14.9%), lid pathology, 911 (9.1%) and
refractive error, 827 (8.2%). The most frequent eye conditions found in children
seeking hospital care were allergic conjunctivitis, eye injuries, lid pathology, re-
fractive error, ocular surface disease, corneal disease, cataract, ophthalmia neo-
natorum, squint, and aphakia.
The frequency of retinoblastoma was 99/10,066 (0.098%). When compared by
site, SKH had more patients who were diagnosed with retinoblastoma (72 SKH;
27 RM). However, Richard Morris had more patients diagnosed with ophthalmia
neonatorum (8 SKH; 469 RMH) conditions.
The study also sought to subclassify the eye conditions in relation to the late-
rality of the eye involved. The results for these trends are presented on Table 2
below. Data was grouped according to the nature or pattern of the condition.
From Table 2 below, almost half 4969 (49.4%) of the patients’ data was rec-
orded as missing and thus, did not reveal the exact eye that was affected. 2959
(29.5%) had both eyes affected, while 1102 (11%) had the right eye affected and
1036 (10.3%) had the left eye affected.

3.3. Frequency of Eye Condition by Gender

The study also sought to determine the frequency of the eye conditions by gend-
er. Figure 2 below illustrates this distribution.
Generally, males were shown to suffer more from eye conditions than females
(allergic conjunctivitis, diseases with lid pathology; cataract, orbit, uveitis, dis-
eases of the optic nerve) as illustrated in Figure 2 below. More males diagnosed
with allergic conjunctivitis (1467/2422) compared to females (955/2422). However,
the difference on prevalence of eye conditions by gender for this variable was not
statistically significant with a p-value being greater than 0.05. Moreover, a similar
pattern was also observed in eye injury condition in which the majority of the af-
fected (1008/1499) were males. Results however, indicated a female preponderance
for some conditions such as corneal and squint which were more prevalent among
females than in males. These differences appear to be consistent over time, specifi-
cally in 2019 and 2020 with the data suggesting that there were no statistically
significant differences in the presentation of eye problems according to gender

Table 2. Patterns of eye conditions.

Affected eye Frequency Percent

Both eyes 2959 29.4

Left eye 1036 10.3

Right eye 1102 11.0

Missing 4969 49.4

Total 10,066 100

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B. Mzyece et al.

Figure 2. Prevalence by gender: Harare & Bulawayo.

over the two years.

3.4. Diagnosis by Age Group

In order to profile eye conditions by age group, patients with different eye con-
ditions were grouped against three age groups, the 0 - 5 age group, 6 - 12 age group
and the 13 - 15 age groups. Figure 3 below illustrates the results that were obtained.
From the results shown above, it can be deduced that out of the 2422 diag-
nosed with allergic conjunctivitis, the majority, 1071 were among the youngest
(0 - 5) age group followed by 1067 who were between the 6 - 12 age group and
the minority, 284 being in the 13 - 15 age group. Eye injuries were most preva-
lent in children between ages 6 - 12, with a frequency of 700 out of the 1499 di-
agnosed with the condition. The age group 0 - 5 had 615 children diagnosed
with the condition whilst the minority, 184 out of 1499 who had eye injury were
between the ages of 13 - 15. With regards to lid pathology, the majority of child-
ren (537/911) who had the abnormality were between the 0 - 5 years age group
followed by 298/911 who were between the 6 - 12 age group whereas the minor-
ity 76/911 were between the 13 - 15 age group.
Generally, conditions that were found to be very prevalent in the 0 to 5 age
group are allergic conjunctivitis, ophthalmia neonatorum, retinoblastoma, dis-
eases of lid pathology such as, glaucoma, ocular surface disease, posterior seg-
ment disease, optic nerve disease and squint.

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 B. Mzyece et al.

Figure 3. Diagnosis by age group: Harare & Bulawayo.

Eye conditions that were most common in the ages 6 to 12 were uveitis, ante-
rior segment disease, aphakia, corneal diseases, refractive error, and eye injuries.
However, there were no conditions that were only peculiar to the 13 to 15 age
group.
Table 3 below shows a 95% Confidence Interval falling between (1.46) lower
bound and (1.49) upper bound for the 0-5 age group on the diagnosis of eye
conditions variable. On the 6 - 12 age group, the 95% CI is between (1.45) lower
limit and (1.48) upper limit on the same variable. For the 13 - 15 age group, the
95% CI for diagnosis of eye conditions is between (1.46) lower bound and (1.52)
upper bound.
Data on Table 3 below suggests that differences do exist in diagnosis of eye
conditions across different age groups, but that there is no pronounced differ-
ence in diagnosis of eye conditions within each age group category.

3.5. Diagnosis by Region

Furthermore, the study also sought to determine diagnosis of the eye conditions
amongst the participants by region. Figure 4 below shows the results that were
obtained from the reviewed data.
Data on Figure 4 below shows that some of eye conditions were more preva-
lent and diagnosed in the Northern Region (SKH) compared to the Southern
Region (RMH), save for eye injury, refractive error, ocular surface disease ante-
rior segment disease and ophthalmia neonatorum which were mostly diagnosed

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B. Mzyece et al.

Table 3. Statistical analysis showing diagnosis of eye conditions by age group.

Age Group Statistic Std. Error

site 0-5 Mean 1.476 0.0070

95% Confidence Interval Lower Bound 1.462

for Mean
Upper Bound 1.490

5% Trimmed Mean 1.474

Median 1.000

Variance 0.249

Std. Deviation 0.4995

6 - 12 Mean 1.470 0.0080

95% Confidence Interval Lower Bound 1.454

for Mean
Upper Bound 1.486

5% Trimmed Mean 1.467

Median 1.000

Variance 0.249

Std. Deviation 0.4992

13 - 15 Mean 1.494 0.0152

95% Confidence Interval Lower Bound 1.464

for Mean
Upper Bound 1.523

5% Trimmed Mean 1.493

Median 1.000

Variance 0.250

Std. Deviation 0.5002

in the Southern Region.

3.5. Eye Condition by Year of Diagnosis

From Figure 5 below, it can be noted that most children with allergic conjuncti-
vitis (1544/2422) were diagnosed in 2018 whilst 712 and 166 were diagnosed in
2019 and 2020, respectively. In addition, a total of 676 out of 1499 with eye in-
jury were diagnosed in 2018 followed by 511/1499 who were diagnosed in 2019
with the minority, only 312 with condition having been diagnosed in 2020.
Table 4 below shows a pattern that was observed in all eye conditions, pa-
tients presented with, per year. Many children were diagnosed of various eye
abnormalities in 2018, followed by 2019 and lastly, 2020.
A descriptive analysis of data on the prevalence of eye conditions by year of
diagnosis (three years that fall under study 2018; 2019 and 2020) has shown that
there was a decline in the number of school children presenting with or being
diagnosed with eye conditions. As illustrated by Table 4 below, 56.1% of the total

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 B. Mzyece et al.

Figure 4. Diagnosis by region: Harare & Bulawayo.

Figure 5. Eye condition by year of diagnosis.

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B. Mzyece et al.

Table 4. Trends in eye diseases for 2018, 2019 & 2020.

Year of Diagnosis

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

2018 5644 56.1 56.1 56.1

2019 3323 33.0 33.0 89.1

Year
2020 1093 10.9 10.9 100.0

Total 10066 100.0 100.0

population sample presented with eye problems in 2018 while only 33% did the
same in 2019 and only 10.9% of the study population presented with eye prob-
lems in 2020.

4. Discussion
This study presented a cursory analysis into the frequency and patterns of com-
mon childhood eye conditions presenting in two major referral eye hospitals in a
low-resourced setting. Hospital based data was used to show trends and patterns
of eye conditions as reflected on the study sample and this data adds confidence
in the results obtained because diagnoses were conducted by qualified eye health
experts as opposed to having to elicit views from respondents which may have
social desirability or recall biases. It must be noted at this point that there are few
studies in Zimbabwe which have attempted to characterize the burden of eye
conditions among children and that this study adds to the growing body of evi-
dence on this important public health problem. Additionally, this study is im-
portant as it included the two major referral centres in Zimbabwe which are lo-
cated at vantage sites, which geographically covers the whole country.
Results showed that more records were extracted and analysed from Harare,
which can be attributed to the fact that the northern provinces of Zimbabwe are
more populated than the southern regions. It may also be related to the percep-
tion that a lot more Zimbabweans may be inclined to seek services in Harare as
it is perceived to have better services by virtue of it being the capital city. It is
also important to note that Richard Morris Hospital refers some conditions to
Sekuru Kaguvi, for instance, those requiring paediatric oncology services. Inter-
estingly, results showed no differences on the types of eye diseases seen in the
two hospital centres. Therefore, there were no geographical variations for most
of the conditions that were reviewed.
By comparison, 469 Ophthalmia neonatorum cases were reported at Richard
Morris whereas SKH only reported 3 cases. Ophthalmia neonatorum is a notifi-
able condition and treatment should be done at the local health centres. This
might mean that the Northern region is managing the condition locally and the
Southern region health centres were referring to Richard Morris. A standardised
protocol of treatment should therefore be followed. Such discrepancies need to
be explored in future research so that uniformity is maintained and that deserv-

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 B. Mzyece et al.

ing cases are not missed.

Between 2018 and 2020, there were 99 retinoblastoma cases, an average diag-
nosis of 33 children were diagnosed annually. The condition did not feature
among the top ten prevalent conditions and further analysis did not yield any
statistical significant results.
Study findings revealed that there were more eye health problems among the
younger age group (0 - 5 years) which affirms previous concerns raised by re-
searchers in Zimbabwe where trachoma was found to be highly prevalent among
those below 9 years [5]. This finding has a number of important implications in
terms of the provision of both preventative and curative services for eye diseases
targeting children in Zimbabwe. Focus should thus be put more on the popula-
tion in terms of programming. There is additional need to promote preventive
behaviours within the communities where the patients are coming from because
there is evidence to suggest that over 90% cases of eye diseases are preventable
[6].
Our findings also appear to suggest that the most common conditions which
are frequent in referral hospitals in Zimbabwe include allergic conjunctivitis, eye
injuries, lid pathology, refractive errors, ocular surface disease, corneal disease,
cataracts among others. It is important to note, for instance, that allergic con-
junctivitis was the most common eye condition and yet it is a condition that can
be easily prevented and controlled if the patient is educated on avoiding those
elements that irritate their eyes. In such instances, targeted health education
should be fostered to help reduce the burden. Similarly, the second most fre-
quent (eye injuries) is related to behaviour which could be easily targeted.
Children are particularly at risk of ocular injury due to their decreased ability to
detect and avoid potential hazards. Most childhood eye injuries are sustained
during unsupervised play and domestic activities. It is worth mentioning that
such findings are in tandem with those reported in other regions in Africa and
beyond [7] [8] [9] [10].
Results have shown that although there are differences between males and fe-
males in the way they present different types of eye conditions, there were no
statistically significant differences in the frequencies of eye conditions according
to gender. It would be important for future research to explore this association
using large sample sizes and also using community-based surveys.
From 2018 to 2020, there was a downward trend in the number of cases seen
and this can be attributed to unavailability of health personnel in health institu-
tions to screen, examine and diagnose the different eye problems that children
present with because over the past four years, Zimbabwe has experienced a sig-
nificant number of health staff migrating overseas for greener pastures [11]. Ad-
ditionally, there have also been strikes by health staff over poor working condi-
tions and remuneration, shortage of medication and other resources needed to
screen and diagnose eye problems in children are some of the reasons for the de-
cline in figures over the past three years. Another plausible explication for the

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B. Mzyece et al.

differences could be due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which sig-
nificantly altered access to health care services because schools closed and lock-
downs restricted movement for many people, and thus may have hindered chil-
dren from accessing eye screening and diagnosis services.

5. Study Limitations
The major limitation of the study was that it was conducted during the time of
COVID-19 pandemic and thus could only be a retrospective review. Richer in-
formation could have been obtained from face-to-face interviews with caregiv-
ers. Moreover, the study was retrospective in nature and utilised data from pa-
tient registers from the hospitals. Reporting tools from the two hospitals were
different rendering it difficult for some variables to be compared. In addition,
some records at the hospitals were incomplete or missing data and this made
data extraction and review difficult.
The study was hospital based and as such results cannot be generalized to the
rest of the population outside this setting. The study did not conduct interviews
or have any physical contact with participants. This limitation means that there
might be some vital information that might have been missed from the caregiv-
ers and the patients. In addition, it was also noted that the two paediatric hospit-
als used slightly different data capturing tools which compromised merging of
the datasets in some instances and therefore, some data may have been lost.
Childhood blindness could not be calculated due to different data sets as one eye
unit did not record the visual acuity for patients in the years that were under
study.

6. Conclusions
The study sought to:
1) Determine the patterns of childhood blindness and severe visual impair-
ment in children below the age of 15 years.
2) Identify the major eye conditions that children who attend the Harare and
Bulawayo paediatric hospitals present with.
3) Identify patterns of the eye conditions that children who visit the Harare
and Bulawayo Eye Units present with.
Results of the study underscore the urgent need to prioritize eye health for
children in Zimbabwe and to institute interventions which would help reduce
this growing burden presented by eye diseases. With regards to the pattern of the
conditions, the study findings revealed that children are affected in different
ways. Some have both eyes affected whilst others have either one eye affected by
these different conditions. The challenge of managing childhood eye injuries is
enormous with considerations ranging from late presentation to eye care centres
and lack of facilities, the low socioeconomic status of the children involved, the
special care required during examination, postoperative management and the
risk of secondary vision loss. Prevention of ocular trauma in children remains a

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 B. Mzyece et al.

priority in order to reduce ocular morbidity. This will involve the adequate edu-
cation of children, parents and teachers to ensure adequate supervision during
playtime.

7. Recommendations
1) The paediatric hospitals should have similar data capturing tools so as to
ensure ease of merging data for programming purposes. In view of this more in-
vestment in data recording and storage should be encouraged especially using
electronic database systems which are able to show real-time trends.
2) Integration of eye screening at Post Natal Units and Child Immunization
Programmes is essential for early identification and treatment of the conditions
that are found in the 0 to 5 age group.
3) Effective screening should be conducted especially at community level with
the involvement of community health workers. This could also involve scaling
up prevention, health education and early presentation of children to ophthal-
mic hospitals for treatment of eye disorders are also essential.
4) General nurses and community health workers should be given basic pri-
mary eye care training so as to reduce the number of conditions referred to
the tertiary institution as some of these can be treated at the health centre (oph-
thalmia neonatorum).
5) More resources should be channeled towards the prevention and cure of
allergic conjunctivitis, eye injuries and lid pathology especially in younger age
groups which appear to more affected.

Acknowledgements
Council for the Blind Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Health and Child Care
would like to thank CBM International, the Lions Club International Founda-
tion; Lions Deutschland and Wir Helfen Kinden for funding this study.

Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this pa-
per.

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DOI: 10.4236/ojoph.2022.123021 232 Open Journal of Ophthalmology