Glaucoma in Zulus

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Abstract
EVIDENCE IS EMERGING that the prevalence and the proportions of different types of glaucoma vary widely between ethnic groups and geographical areas throughout the world. Considerable data have been collected among white subjects and increasingly in those of East Asian origin. However, studies of the distribution of glaucoma in subjects of African derivation have focused mostly on island populations in the Caribbean, where prevalence rates are extremely high, and on the genetically heterogeneous population of the United States. A recent population-based study in rural Tanzania1 reported an age-adjusted prevalence of primary glaucoma very close to that in African Americans, and with a similar preponderance of the open-angle type. Given the genetic diversity that exists among African ethnic groups2,3 and the exclusion of the population of East Africa from the transportation of slaves to the New World, this consistency is surprising. It cannot yet be assumed that these findings will be consistent across the whole continent of Africa.

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