SHOWDAILY 2016
8
Mar 24 – 27, 2016 • Taipei
Global Strategies and Developments Aim to
Improve Vision Worldwide by Claire Noonan
The goal of the International Agency to Prevent Blindness is to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020, Professor Hugh Taylor, A.C., M.D. and President of the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) told delegates during the first plenary session of the 31st Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Congress (APAO 2016).
In a plenary session on the latest advances in ophthalmology and visual sciences, he explained that the projected incidence of blindness based on current figures is 90 million people are going to be blind by 2020. “We should be able to reduce this to 25,000,” he said, “by treating the conditions we know how to treat.” The Wold Health Organization (WHO) has taken note of the prevalence of avoidable visual impairment and has implemented an action plan aiming to reduce it by 25%.
Causes of blindness vary with age, but it is apparent that some causes are becoming more prevalent. For example, rates of diabetes-related eye conditions are increasing. There is also a global increase in glaucoma, especially in the Western Pacific region. There is a clear need for public eye care, but there are only around 205,000 ophthalmologists in the world. As well as training more specialists, we need to take a targeted approach, emphasized Professor Taylor. “We need to work smarter and better, and to work in
eye care teams,” he said. This entails integration of eye care into the primary health care system and also developing world standards of ophthalmology training. The ICO is taking the lead in enabling the delivery of specialist eye care on a global scale, with its functions including the development of clinical guidelines and provision of worldwide examinations. It also runs a fellowship program for new specialists. Cont. on Page 12 >>