NEW DELHI: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday called for accelerated action to provide quality, affordable, integrated and people-centred comprehensive eye care for everyone, for addressing the increasing and disproportionate burden of vision impairment and blindness in the South-East Asia Region.
According to WHO, nearly 30 per cent of the 2.2 billion people living with impaired vision or blindness globally, are in the 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,” WHO SEARO Regional Director Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh said.
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 while inaugurating a high-level meeting of Member countries on ‘Integrated People-Centred Eye Care’.
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 (NCDs) 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 regional action plan aims at enabling countries to achieve a 40 per cent increase in effective coverage of refractive errors, a 30 per cent increase in effective coverage of cataract surgery, at least 80 per cent of 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. Two countries in the Region - Nepal and Myanmar - have eliminated trachoma.
“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 be engaged and empowered, with a focus on the at-risk and underserved population, to increase health literacy and enhance demand for eye care services, she said.
Management of common eye health issues should be mainstreamed into routine health services and current care models must be reoriented to prioritize primary health care and community-based services, she said.
She called for vigorously strengthening the eye health workforce and emphasised on financial risk protection to enable people to access essential medicines, spectacles, low-vision aids, rehabilitation and assistive products.
The three-day high-level meeting being attended by Ministers of Health, some virtually, and programme managers from across member countries 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.’