About the Authors

Sarah Polack

sarah.polack@lshtm.ac.uk

Affiliation Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, United Kingdom

Christina Eusebio

Affiliation Cataract Foundation of the Philippines, Bacolod, Philippines

Wanjiku Mathenge

Affiliation Eye Unit, Rift Valley Provincial Hospital, Nakuru, Kenya

Zazkia Wadud

Affiliation Child Sight Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Mamunur Rashid

Affiliation CSS Rawm Hospital, Khulna, Bangladesh

Allen Foster

Affiliation Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, United Kingdom

Hannah Kuper

Affiliation Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

Professor Allen Foster (one of the co-authors) was involved in this study in his position as Director of the International Centre for Eye Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. At the time of the study Professor Foster was also the Medical Advisor to CBM, one of the international development organizations that co-funded this study. In January 2006, two years into the study, Professor Foster was appointed President of CBM. He contributed to the conception of the study question, study design and critically reviewed the draft of the article. He was not involved in the data collection, data analysis or interpretation of results. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Performed the experiments: SP. Analyzed the data: SP. Wrote the paper: SP. Substantial contribution to design of study: SP, AF, HK. Substantial contribution to acquisition of data: SP, CE, WM, ZW, MR, HK. Substantial contribution to analysis and interpretation of data: SP, HK. Responsible for drafting the article: SP, HK. Approved final version to be published: SP, CE, WM, ZW, MR, AF, HK. Substantial contribution to the critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: CE, WM, ZW, MR, AF, HK. Substantial contribution to the conception of the study: AF, HK.