Infection, Antibiotics In Pregnancy Can Course Cataracts In Children

Most people associate cataract with old age. Ironically, experts, in this report by Sade Oguntola, say a number of children also develop cataract when their mothers in pregnancy develop some infections or take some medications.



MANY people think cataracts only happen to older people, but children can get cataracts too. But Fuad Ogunsanya, 24-year-old best 2018 graduating student of Lagos State University (LASU), recounted having cataract also as a child.

Of the seven children from his polygamous father (now deceased), Fuad, a Business Administration graduate, is the only one who suffered eye cataract like his dad.

“I had thought I would overcome the cataract naturally after some years, but that was not to be until I had the second surgery at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan,” he told newsmen at the sideline of the event at the University.

That congenital health condition didn’t affect his health alone, it denied him full concentration in his studies, especially during his secondary school days, such that he had F9 grade in all the subjects he first sat for in the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), conducted by both WAEC and NECO.

Fuad is one of the thousands of babies and children that get a cataract. Cataracts can be present at birth (congenital) or can develop later in life. It has been estimated that one in every 250 children will develop a cataract either prior to birth or during childhood.

A cataract is a cloudy area in the natural lens of the child’s eye. If it is large or dense, it can cause blurry or even blocked vision. A child may have a cataract in just one eye, or in both eyes.

Normally, the lens is clear and allows light entering the eye to clearly focus an image on the retina. When cataracts develop, the light rays become scattered as they pass through the cloudy lens and the retinal image becomes blurred and distorted.

According to Dr Bolutife Olusanya, a consultant ophthalmologist, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, congenital cataracts occur in children for many reasons, including inherited tendencies, infection, metabolic problems, diabetes, injury to the eye, and inflammation or drug reactions.

He declared the fairly common cataract in children in our environment is caused by rubella infection that affects mothers during pregnancy. We also see a lot of children with somebody in the family, like the parent or siblings, having cataracts.

Dr Olusanya declared that aside from rubella, exposure to radiation in pregnancy or some other illnesses may also predispose a child to congenital cataract.

As an example, tetracycline antibiotics used to treat infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause cataracts in newborn babies.
But, “proving that drug reactions in pregnancy causes cataract in Nigeria may be difficult because doctors hardly ever get any history from the mother,” he added.

READ ALSO: Blood test may predict premature birth