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Cash Counts makingcontact.org
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Cataracts
Background
About two hundred children a year are born in the UK with an opaque (cloudy) lens of one or both eyes, which is known as a cataract. Most children born with cataracts are otherwise healthy and many will have other family members born with cataract. However, in some cases, cataract is a sign of a syndrome such as rubella, Down's syndrome, Lowe syndrome, Nance-Horan syndrome, galactosaemia, Marinesco-Sjögren syndrome, Cockayne syndrome, Hallermann-Streiff-Francois syndrome, Pollitt syndrome, MICRO syndrome, Pierson syndrome, Werner syndrome, Rothmund-Thomson syndrome, Zellweger syndrome or Conradi-Hunermann syndrome.
If cataract is the only abnormality of the eye, and in particular if the eye is of normal size and the child is treated within the first few weeks of life, the prognosis for vision is good. Many children with small eyes will also develop at least moderate vision. If the child is otherwise healthy it is expected that the child will attend mainstream school and read, although often will have difficulty with distance vision for the white board and may need print enlarging.
