Ida Mann

Who was Ida Mann?

Dame Ida Caroline Mann, DBE, FRCS 'a distinguished ophthalmologist...equally well known for her pioneering research work on embryology and development of the eye, and on the influences of genetic and social factors on the incidence and severity of eye disease throughout the world'. She was inducted into the Ophthalmology Hall of Fame in 2007.

She diagnosed a trachoma epidemic amongst Indigenous people in the Kimberleys and traveled extensively in Western Australia in order to examine and treat Indigenous people with trachoma. Mann became convinced that better housing and sanitation, rather than administration of antibiotics, would improve this health crisis.