A survey conducted among Indochinese refugees in Thailand in 1979, revealed significant levels of Vitamin A deficiency blindness (xerophthalmia). A Vitamin A supplementation program for children was implemented. Recent events in South East Asia have resulted in the mass movements of thousands of Kampucheans. These people underwent extreme deprivation for several years before migrating in large numbers to the Thai-Kampuchean border and later into Thailand. This massive influx of starving and ill men, women and children stimulated a large international relief effort aimed at providing food, shelter and health care. Under the supervision of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, several holding centers or camps were established within Thailand.

Early reports indicated severe problems with malnutrition among the children reaching these areas. Since these malnourished children were susceptible to a blinding affliction, xerophthalmia, Helen Keller International, a voluntary agency long interested in the disease, became alarmed. I was dispatched as a consultant public health ophthalmologist to the holding center for an on-site investigation.