Stop Infant Blindness in Africa (SIBA)

Every year, thousands of newborn babies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are going blind because physicians lack the training, supplies, and equipment they need to prevent blindness. This epidemic of blind babies is emerging in SSA from Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP).

ROP was first recognized in the US and Europe when premature babies began to survive in newly created Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). Though survival rates increased, babies received excessive oxygen in these NICUs, which often led to blindness.

Today, developed countries benefit from multiple enhancements in NICUs and treatments for ROP, which have subsequently significantly reduced the incidence of blindness.

In low-resource countries in SSA, ROP is becoming a more common cause of childhood blindness as survival rates for premature infants increase, but oxygen is not regulated properly. At present, many countries in SSA lack the infrastructure and equipment necessary to reduce the incidence of ROP, provide proper screening, or treat it effectively.

CEF of AAPOS, in collaboration with The International Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Council, created SIBA with financial support from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation in 2018 to develop protocols, educational materials, and screening techniques, as well as to provide equipment to neonatal centers in Africa.  

The program has since evolved, with CEF partnering with EYESHA, a British nonprofit with an operational presence in sub-Saharan Africa, in 2024. In 2025, SIBA and EYESHA launched telescreening programs at multiple hospitals in Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria aimed at strengthening regional centers of excellence and building national guidelines. The long-term goal is to create national, self-sustaining ROP programs. 

This critically important initiative will give many children the joy of sight for life. 

SIBA Published

The SIBA Project appears in a number of peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of AAPOS (JAAPOS), Journal Of Perinatology, and the Journal of Ophthalmic Epidemiology. 

Journal of AAPOS (JAAPOS) Current Management of Retinopathy of Prematurity in sub-Saharan Africa by Trevor Lloyd, BS, et al.

Journal of Perinatology Oxygen management among infants in neonatal units in sub-Saharan Africa: a cross-sectional survey by Scott K. Herrod, et al.

Journal of Ophthalmic Epidemiology Blindness Secondary to Retinopathy of Prematurity in Sub-Saharan Africa by Scott K. Herrod, et al.