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World Sight Day
Global Campaign Against Blindness

By Dr K. P. Adhikari

EVERY year 11th of October is celebrated as World Sight Day all over the world. This indeed is a global campaign to raise awareness among peoples to inform that majority of blinding eye diseases either is curable or preventable if we are aware of the situation and if we could take action in time. This is also true that with the limited resources available we can stop a person from going blind. By observing World Sight Day we also want people to get proper information on existing eye care facilities and should be encouraged for maximum utilisation of such available services. We must try to find out different barriers and reasons why people are not properly using these facilities. We must try to find out different barriers and reasons why people are not properly using these facilities. The public awareness campaign in countries like ours is of great importance for prevention and timely treatment of blinding eye diseases.

The burden of blindness is tremendously high in the South Asian region. It is estimated that there are 45 million blind in the world at present and 12 million out of this, live in South East Asian reason. And out of ten blind people nine live in developing countries like ours. This shows the magnitude of the problem and indicates that blindness indeed is a serious public health problem in the region.

In Nepal the number of blind people is estimated to be 185,000. More than 80 per cent of blindness is avoidable, that is it can be either cured or prevented. Similarly, more than 80 per cent of the blinds live in rural areas of the country. Right now there are 17 eye hospitals and 32-district eye care centres in Nepal. The number of eye doctors is 85, thus the ratio being one eye doctor for the population of 250,000. Eye care services are available in 40 districts of the country whereas in 35 districts no services are available at all expect in the forms of mobile eye camps which are organised only occasionally. Every year 80,000 blind people get sight restoration surgeries in Nepal.

The increasing number of blinding population in developing countries is due mainly to two reasons: increased life expectancy and population growth. As the burden of blindness is constantly increasing, to reduce the number of blinds to a minimum by the year 2020, a Global Initiative Vision 2020: The
Right to Sight has been launched jointly by WHO and other non-governmental and private organisations with a view to develop a common agenda for global action against avoidable blindness. Nepal joined this campaign in November 1999.

The global initiative programme consists of four five-years phase commencing from the year 2000 to 2020. In it’s first phase the programme has defined its priorities in terms of disease control, human resources development, infrastructure development, use of appropriate and affordable technology, and mobilisation of resources.

Under disease control five conditions have been identified as immediate priorities. These are cataract, trachoma, onchocerciasis, childhood blindness, refractive errors and low vision.

Cataract is the single most dominant cause of curable blindness in Nepal. This is an age-related problem. Every year we get more than 16,000 new cases of cataract blindness. Under the campaign Vision 2020 emphasis is given towards achieving high volume cataract operation with better quality of life outcomes. To achieve this our services should be affordable for rural and undeserved population.

Trachoma is endemic in 49 countries of the world including Nepal. Nearly six million people are blind in the world due to this disease. In endemic areas a SAFE (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness, and Environmental hygiene) Strategy has been designed and applied for prevention and treatment of trachoma. According to national survey trachoma is the second major cause of blindness in Nepal.

Onchocerciasis (river blindness) a blinding eye disease is endemic in Africa and Latin America. This disease is not found in Nepal.

Childhood blindness is now considered as a priority area under the campaign Vision 2020. Another area where we should direct our attention is refractive errors and their spectacles corrections. Regular vision screening in schools has to be intensified for early detection and management of this ailment.

In Nepal, we have a good infrastructure of eye care delivery system and also human resources development activities are highly praiseworthy. Under the campaign Vision 2020 the doctor population ratio is projected to one eye doctor to 50,000 population by the year 2020. Thus we need more eye doctors, and many more other different categories of ophthalmic manpower. We need to provide some kind of eye services to the remaining 35 districts of the country where so far no services are available. Thus we have a huge task ahead in our fight against blindness.

The main aim of our campaign is elimination of avoidable blindness from our country by the year 2020. For this we need to further strengthen our services in all districts by integrating primary eye care into the mainstream of primary health services. We need to produce more manpower and raise awareness among the people and for all this to achieve we need more resources, proper planning, equality in facilities and dedication from all those who are involved in this global campaign Vision 2020: The Right to Sight and we stress this point in this special occasion of World Sight Day.

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