Eyecare in Developing Nations
The number of blind persons will treble by the year 2020 if no additional resources become available1.
Over 90% of the world’s blind live in developing nations and avoidable blindness, secondary to refractive error, accounts for 13% of all blindness.
There are approximately 314 million visually impaired people worldwide, of which approximately 80% could be easily avoided or treated.
If presbyopia (the need for reading glasses as we get older) is included, the figure for visually impaired persons rises to a staggering 1.04 billion people.
‘Vision 2020: the Right to Sight’1 is a global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020 and advocates giving priority to optometric services to address the issues of refractive error and low vision. The problem cannot be remedied in the long term through outreach clinics run by charitable organisations.
Optometric resources in sub-Saharan Africa and remains drastically deficient, with only four countries conducting optometric training programmes. A transformation of current modes of eye-care training and delivery is required. There exists an urgent need for an optometric contribution to the visual welfare of Africa and other developing nations to reduce or eliminate the devastating impact avoidable blindness has on quality of life including the following:
Gender equality
The Irish Aid strategic development plan3 the Millennium Development programme4, and the Mozambique government assign particular importance to increasing female educational enrolments and promoting equal rights in the workplace1,5,6,7. Our programme supports gender equality and promotes equal rights in access to, control of, and benefit from all optometric services.
Poverty and disadvantage
Visual impairment brings profound economic disadvantage to individuals, families and societies. Furthermore, the relationship is interdependent in that poverty itself is a significant contributory factor to the many causes of avoidable blindness, including malnutrition and limited access to health, education, water and sanitary services. Poor vision can limit capacity to obtain employment and make an economic contribution to society. Provision of spectacles means a person can access basic human rights such as education, productive employment and a better standard and quality of life.
Our proposal seeks to facilitate greater access to training for eye health professionals which will ultimately contribute to providing affordable and accessible eye care within the public health system.top
Education
Approximately 90% of visually impaired children in low-income countries are deprived of education1. Resulting from lack of early eyecare interventions, school performance is also reduced where access does exist. In Mozambique, there are currently only 4 schools serving children with special needs with a quota of only 300 places2. Low vision aids for visually impaired children can facilitate integration into regular school.
Visual impairment among adults also impacts the education of school-age children, causing decreased school attendance due to adult dependence on sighted children. top
Health
Limited capacity to conduct research in epidemiology and public health in Africa constrains the development of appropriate, effective and sustainable eye care systems. There is a significant need to produce high quality emergent research in a variety of thematic areas including epidemiology, disease control and public health, reducing the need for inferential deductions on the “African eye”. Research will also serve to improve public health services and delivery by strengthening the primary eyecare system by steeering human resource and training initiatives.top
Economic Impact
Restoring the sense of sight is also a cost-effective method of positively impacting the livelihood and security of the individual. Increased participation in education and the work force will contribute to their community and yield benefits in economic growth. It is predicted that the annual costs of global blindness and low vision will more than double to $110 billion by 2020 without intervention, and that the annual GDP loss in Sub-Saharan countries will reach a staggering 0.5% 8.top
References:
1. Vision 2020: Right to Sight, 2005: http://www.v2020.org2. www.unmozambique.org
3. www.hea.ie
4. www.un.org/milleniumgoals
5. www.unsystemmoz.org
6. www.un.org/milleniumgoals
7. www.milleniumcampaign.org
8. Frick K.D., Foster A. (2003). The magnitude and cost of global blindness: An increasing problem that can be alleviated. American Journal of Ophthalmology; 135(4); 471-9.top
