Test of the prevention of blindness health education programme for Ethiopian primary schools

Trachoma is a major cause of blindness in Ethiopia and is widespread throughout the country. No health education for blindness prevention is conducted in schools even though 62% of the eligible children attend primary school. Because of the low cost and potential benefit of such a strategy, we developed a programme of health education for eye infections targeted to primary schools and tested it in the rural town of Metahara. Students were given examinations before and after the programme. Their knowledge improved from a mean score of 4.3/9 to 6.2/9 (p less than 0.005). The prevalence of moderate and severe Trachoma decreased from 12.1% to 3.3% (p less than 0.001) in one year, and the prevalence of conjunctivitis from 7.5% to 0.4% (p less than 0.001). Health education for the prevention of blindness in primary schools should be a priority in Ethiopia and yearly eye examinations of school children by local health staff should be reinstated.