Ophthalmia Neonatorum, Helen Keller, and the Social Dimensions of Eye Disease

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe how an early 20th-century American celebrity attempted to influence public perception of ophthalmic neonatorum. Methods: This study reviews the editorial written by Helen Keller in the 1909 Ladies’ Home Journal and related historical documents about the prevention of blindness from neonatal conjunctivitis. Results: Although blind, deaf, and nulliparous, Helen Keller at the age of 29 sensed that the newborn children of many American women were being denied preventative treatment for ophthalmia neonatorum. In her editorial in the Ladies’ Home Journal discussing the complications of venereal disease she urged women to become proactive in matters of personal and family health care. Conclusions: Helen Keller viewed blindness from ophthalmia neonatorum as a failure of the American health care system. Her solution was to impart women with enough knowledge to seek care from educated medical professionals. The observation that many women and their children were receiving substandard care reflected a fundamental problem with disparities in the delivery of perinatal health care. Her insights are as relevant today as they were in 1909.