TY - JOUR T1 - World blindness: a 21st century perspective JF - British Journal of Ophthalmology JO - Br J Ophthalmol SP - 261 LP - 266 DO - 10.1136/bjo.85.3.261 VL - 85 IS - 3 AU - Hugh R Taylor AU - Jill E Keeffe Y1 - 2001/03/01 UR - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/85/3/261.abstract N2 - At this time, the real start of the new century let alone the new millennium, it is a good time to reflect on where we have been in terms of the prevention of blindness and where we are going. Most of us could watch the dawn break on the new millennium, but there were another 45 million around the world who could not see it because they were blind, and another 135 million who could see it only dimly because of their low vision.1 Even more distressing is that without new and targeted programmes these numbers will double in the next 20 years. Millions more have vision threatening eye disease. The causes of blindness have changed dramatically over the years in Western Europe. Two hundred years ago, smallpox was the major cause of blindness.2 Smallpox typically affected young adults and often left scarred, blind eyes. However, great progress has been made. Jenner's application of that “traditional medicine”, the use of cowpox to “vaccinate”, led to a dramatic reduction of smallpox in Europe and the consequent decrease in related blindness. Although vaccination started in 1798, it was only 20 years ago that smallpox was finally eradicated globally. With the reduction in smallpox and with the social disruption and crowding of the industrial revolution, venereal diseases—syphilis and especially gonorrhoea—became much more common, so that by the end of the 19th century the leading cause of blindness was blinding infections in newborn babies. One consequence of this was the founding of many blind babies' homes and schools for the blind. In 1881, Credé discovered that bathing the eyes with a drop of silver nitrate could prevent infection and blindness. This proved to be a major breakthrough. Rapidly, institutions and societies were set up to promote Credé's prophylaxis and by the first … ER -