Eye Banking in India : A Road Map

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(No Transcript)
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Why blindness prevention needs our attention
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The Basics - A Global Problem

• 161 million visually impaired
• 37 million blind
• 75 of blindness is avoidable -treatable or
  preventable, in a cost-effective manner
• Nine in 10 blind persons live in low income
  countries

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A Costly Problem

• Higher costs of treating and managing diseases at
  a late stage
• Lost earnings for the visually impaired and
  caregivers
• Lower quality of life in social, economic, health
  and cultural terms
• Annual global impact of unaccommodated blindness
  and low vision at nearly 42 billion

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A Containable Problem

• Of the 37 million blind worldwide, 17 million
  could be cured by a 15-minute, 50-dollar cataract
  operation with a 98 success rate
• Blindness is not limited by age, socio-economic
  status or gender

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A Containable Problem

• Some blinding diseases and conditions result from
  poor sanitation and inadequate nutrition
• The leading causes of avoidable blindness are
  cataract, refractive error, onchocerciasis,
  trachoma and vitamin-A deficiency

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The Imperatives

• Reducing blindness is linked to improving access
  to educational and employment opportunities
• Reducing blindness alleviates household,
  community and national poverty

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The Imperatives

• The right to sight is an essential component of
  national development and poverty alleviation
• Productivity gains from reducing visual
  disability would amount to a saving of US223
  billion over 20 years

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The Demonstrated Impact

• An Australian survey showed that
• Vision impairment and blindness cost the country
  9.85 billion in 2004 and affected nearly 500,000
  Australians
• Interventions over the lifetime of those impacted
  would lead to savings of more than 650 million
  in present value
• Quality of life gains would accumulate to 7.7
  billion over the lifetime of populations

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The Demonstrated Impact
The gains would depend on an investment of just
0.23 of the total health spend and 9.9 of the
spend on vision disorders
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The Broader Implications

• Blindness prevention is a step toward achieving
  the Millennium Development Goals, particularly in
  terms of
• Poverty eradication
• Universalisation of primary education
• Reducing child mortality
• Combating chronic and life-threatening diseases
• Improving access to employment opportunities

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The Process

• Partnerships between eye care agencies,
  professional bodies and government institutions
• Building capacity in human resources and
  infrastructure within the health care delivery
  system
• Developing preventive and curative eye health
  services as part of general health care at
  primary, secondary and tertiary levels
• Committing to the idea vision loss can and must
  be prevented through high quality, sustainable
  and equitable services

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The Gains Thus Far

• VISION 2020 The Right to Sight - a productive
  partnership between IAPB and WHO
• Significant gains in disease control
• An enhanced network of training opportunities
• A focus on permanent infrastructure creation
• Increased awareness of blindness as an issue that
  has many ramifications
• Successful service delivery models incorporating
  sustainability, excellence and equity

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The Gaps

• Acceptance from more governments to the idea that
  blindness prevention is crucial to human
  development
• Greater government commitment in terms of
  financial and human resources
• To build training programmes
• To develop infrastructure
• To incorporate eye care into primary health care

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Stepping ahead WHA, May 2006

• Vote in favour of EB draft resolution 117.R4
• Support the inclusion of prevention of blindness
  in the WHOs medium term strategic plan for
  2008-2013 and its biennial programme budget for
  2008-2009
• Support the inclusion of prevention of blindness
  in WHOs 11th General Plan of Work

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Leveraging the position of WHO

• To raise the visibility of blindness prevention
• To encourage the buy-in of governments
• To enhance the networks already created by VISION
  2020
• To move beyond the recognition achieved to WHA
  56.26 to realise the dream of a universal Right
  to Sight

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Investing in Blindness Prevention is

• An investment in
• life
• livelihoods
• learning
• living

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Gullapalli N Rao International Agency for the
Prevention of Blindness