Aboriginal eye health and trachoma; what we have to do to close the gap for vision

31 July 2012

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children commence life with much better vision than mainstream children.  However, by the age of 40, Indigenous adults have six times as much blindness.  The major causes of vision loss are cataract, diabetic retinopathy, refractive error and trachoma.  Ninety four per cent of the vision loss is avoidable and yet a third have never had an eye examination.