Prevalence of ocular morbidities among school children in Raipur district, India.

Purpose: To estimate the prevalence of various ocular morbidities in school children (5-15 years) utilizing a comprehensive mobile eye unit in Central India. Methods: A prospective, cross-sectional, school-based observational study was carried out in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India between December 2017 and September 2018. A total of 1557 eligible school-going children in the age group 5-15 years were evaluated. Random sampling was done to allocate schools (n = 29) and children from various urban and rural (836 vs 721) schools. The primary objective was to estimate the prevalence of ocular morbidities in school-going children in Raipur district, India. The secondary objective was to analyze whether geographical location (rural vs urban), age group, and gender led to any differences in ocular morbidity patterns. Results: The mean age of the study population was 10.3 ± 2.4 years. There were 691 (44.4%) boys and 866 (55.6%) girls. Ocular morbidity was present in a total of 331 (21.2%) children. Vitamin A deficiency was the most common cause of ocular morbidity, noted in 156 (10%) children, followed by refractive error (81, 5.2%). Myopia was significantly higher in urban school children (4.3%) compared to rural children (1.9%) (P = 0.002). The older age group had a higher prevalence (7.6%) of refractive error, especially myopia, compared to the younger age group (2.2%) (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Vitamin A deficiency prevalence was much higher indicating missed opportunities for vitamin A supplementation at a younger age. Refractive error was more prevalent in the urban population as well in the older age group (11-15 years), indicating a need for frequent eye screening.

Multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa keratitis and its effective treatment with topical colistimethate.

The purpose was to evaluate the clinical outcome in multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDR-PA) bacterial keratitis and report the successful use of an alternative antibiotic, topical colistimethate in some of them. The medical records of 12 culture-proven MDR-PA keratitis patients, all exhibiting in vitro resistance by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method to ≥ three classes of routinely used topical antibiotics were reviewed. Eight patients were treated with 0.3% ciprofloxacin or ofloxacin, 1 patient with 5% imipenem/cilastatin and 3 patients with 1.6% colistimethate. The outcomes in 8 eyes treated with only fluoroquinolones were evisceration in 4 eyes, therapeutic corneal graft in 1 eye, phthisis bulbi in 1 eye, and no improvement in 2 eyes. The eye treated with imipenem/cilastin required a therapeutic corneal graft. All the three eyes treated with 1.6% colistimethate healed. Colistimethate may prove to be an effective alternative antibiotic in the treatment of MDR-PA keratitis.