Retinopathy of prematurity--epidemics, incidence, prevalence, blindness.

Currently, there are enough financial resources in industrial most developed countries to provide quality health care to the risk population of premature children. Neonatological units are equipped with state-of-the-art technological background, and highly qualified personnel are employed at the units. This as well allows providing optimum care of extremely immature newborns. ROP prevalence in these countries reaches approximately 5-8%. Today, a boom of surviving premature newborns can be seen in countries with medium-developed economy. Nevertheless, limited financing resources do not allow for standard high-level care. In such countries, the prevalence reaches up to 30%. In this respect, the "third ROP epidemic" is mentioned. Birth weight and gestational age parameters achieve significantly lower values in ROP-infants than in those not affected by the disease. Higher number of surviving immature newborns correlates with an increased risk of advanced ROP stages occurrence, while the frequency and degree of the disease are of inverse nature to the gestational age and birth weight (Tab. 1, Ref. 39).