Action against avoidable blindness

Imagine a grandfather slowly losing his sight to cataracts. The thing he wants most is to see his first grandchild. Frustrated, he sits at home, unable to support himself, cared for by his son.

Stories like this are common in a world where 39 million people are blind and another 246 million have low vision that impairs their daily lives. In China alone, more than 8 million people are blind and more than 67 million people have low vision.

Almost half of those that are blind have cataracts - a natural clouding of the lens that usually comes with age. In high-income countries, fewer people go blind from cataracts than in low- and middle-income countries like China. That's because the people in high-income countries have greater access to the simple operation that replaces the clouded lens with a plastic one.

In China, trachoma is another major cause of blindness. A bacterial infection of the eye, it can be prevented with proper hygiene, such as hand washing, and treated with antibiotics. Failure to treat trachoma can lead to blindness, which is reversible only with an expensive and hard-to-get corneal transplant.

Good eye health is a development and equity issue. Indeed, the associated economic and societal impacts of blindness are substantial. These include decreased productivity and increased unemployment and welfare costs. Current figures are hard to come by, but a 2000 estimate put the global economic loss from blindness and visual impairment at $42 billion per year, rising to $110 billion by 2020.

To act, we don't require a research breakthrough or new technology. We already have what we need to prevent and treat blindness in four out of five people. The task before us is to provide access to quality services, especially for the poor, whether in China or elsewhere.

The grandfather was Zhou Jingguang of Gao'an, a village in Jiangxi province. He was 85 years old when he had his surgery in 2007. When he returned home from the hospital, he was delighted to see his grandson and was greeted by the whole village.

"When my bandages were removed I could hardly keep the smile off my face," he said. "I was so excited to be able to see again! I recognized my brother and sister immediately. We laughed, we hugged, we cried. Living in darkness for 10 years was very hard. It was hard for me and hard for my family. Now I have a fresh start in life."

Cataract surgery is as cost-effective as traditional immunizations. For most people with low vision, a pair of eyeglasses costing as little as $1 is all that is needed to go from struggling with everyday tasks to self-support. And blinding trachoma can be eliminated, as China has committed to do by 2016 through a partnership led by the Lions Clubs International and with technical support from the World Health Organization.

Blindness and low vision are among the issues that I plan to discuss when I visit China from Dec 11 to 14. The World Health Organization is fully committed to help China and all its member states to restore sight to those who can be helped.

The author is World Health Organization regional director for the Western Pacific, in Manila.

(China Daily 12/11/2012 page8)