KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 21
The World Health Organisation today called for accelerated action to provide quality, affordable, integrated, and people-centred comprehensive eyecare for everyone, for addressing the increasing and disproportionate burden of vision impairment and blindness in the WHO South-East Asia Region, which also includes Nepal.
"Nearly 30 per cent of the 2.2 billion people living with vision-impairment or blindness globally, are in WHO South- East Asia Region. This huge burden is unacceptable, as nearly half the global vision impairment could have been prevented or are yet to be addressed," Regional Director Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh said inaugurating a high-level meeting of member countries on 'Integrated People-Centred Eye Care' in Hyderabad, India.
Young children and older people are most vulnerable while women, rural populations and ethnic minority groups are more likely to have vision impairment and less likely to access care, she said. The increased prevalence of vision impairment and blindness in the region among people of all socio-economic groups, also tracks with the rising tide of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.
In 2019, the region was home to 87.6 million people with diabetes. Of them, 30.6 million had diabetic retinopathy (eye disease caused by high blood sugar), and 9.6 million had sight-threatening retinopathy (blindness caused by untreated diabetic retinopathy).
The three-day high-level meeting attended by ministers of Health in person or virtually, and programme managers from across member countries, including Nepal, of the region will deliberate on urgent measures to roll out 'Action plan for integrated people-centred eye care in South- East Asia 2022-2030'. The LV Prasad Eye Institute, a comprehensive eye health facility and a World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Prevention of Blindness, is supporting the meeting.
The regional action plan aims to enable countries to achieve 40 per cent increase in effective coverage of refractive errors, 30 per cent increase in effective coverage of cataract surgery, at least 80 per cent people with diabetes are screened regularly for retinopathy, and at least 80 per cent of those identified with sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy are treated by 2030. The plan also outlines measures that countries can take to eliminate trachoma in the region by 2025.
"The regional action plan details a series of actionable, evidence-based and locally adaptable strategies which need to be implemented with urgency," the regional director said. People and communities need to engage and be empowered, with focus on at-risk and underserved population, to increase health literacy and enhance demand for eye care services, Dr Khetrapal Singh said.
The regional director called for vigorously strengthening eye health workforce and emphasised on financial risk protection to enable people to access essential medicines, spectacles, low-vision aids, rehabilitation, and assistive products.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 22, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
