• WORLD SIGHT DAY
KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 13
On the occasion of World Sight Day, the World Health Organisation has urged countries, including Nepal, in the South-East Asia Region to accelerate efforts to ensure that everyone has equitable access to high-quality and comprehensive eye health services in line with the newly adopted Regional Action Plan for integrated people-centred eye care (2022-2030).
Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have vision impairment or blindness. At least 1 billion preventable cases of vision impairment are yet to be addressed. Nearly 30 per cent of the world's blind and vision-impaired people across 11 countries live in the South-East Asia Region.
According to a statement issued by WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh today, eye conditions affect people at all stages of life.
However, young children and older people are most vulnerable.
Women, rural populations and ethnic minority groups are more likely than other groups to have vision impairment and are less likely to avail the service.
In 2020, the estimated economic cost of blindness and moderate to severe vision loss globally was US$ 411 billion. The number of people with presbyopia – loss of near-distance focus – is projected to increase from 1.8 billion in 2015 to 2.1 billion by 2030.
Despite an array of challenges, this region's continues to make important progress towards universal eye health coverage. Most countries have eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, in line with the region's flagship priority on eliminating neglected tropical diseases.
Nepal has achieved remarkable success in reducing blindness. In 2018, the country became the first in the Southeast Asia Region to achieve the status of trachoma elimination. Bhutan, India, Maldives and Thailand have piloted WHO's Revised Eye Care Service Assessment Tool, which aims to integrate eye care programmes into primary, secondary and tertiary care services.
Across the Region, new WHO guidance on strengthening diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy – a significant and growing challenge – continues to be implemented, thereby advancing the region's flagship priority on preventing and controlling non-communicable diseases. Since 2016, the Region's Technical Advisory Group on Blindness has provided vital policy guidance to all the member states, alongside WHO's Regional Network of Collaborating Centres.
With the aim of accelerating this progress, member states are now implementing the new Regional Action Plan for integrated people-centred eye care (2022- 2030), unanimously adopted at the seventy-fifth session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia, in September 2022 with more emphasis on several priorities.
Globally, WHO member states have adopted two targets for eye care by 2030: first, a 40 per cent increase in effective coverage of refractive errors, and second, a 30 per cent increase in effective coverage of cataract surgery.
A new WHO report released this week shows that the median relative quality gap between 'coverage' and 'effective coverage' globally is 33.9 per cent for cataract and 7.3 per cent for refractive error, highlighting the need to not only increase coverage but also quality.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 14, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
