Eye care in Bangladesh

Globally, every 5 seconds one person goes blind and every minute one child goes blind. In the face of such an alarming situation, World Sight Day is observed every year to focus attention on the issue of avoidable blindness and vision impairment. It is the primary advocacy event for Vision 2020: The Right to Sight, a global effort to prevent blindness undertaken by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).
According to WHO statistics approximately 314 million people in the world are visually impaired, of whom 45 million are totally blind. 153 million people are visually impaired due to uncorrected refractive errors (near-sightedness, far-sightedness, or astigmatism). The majority of these individuals could have normal vision restored with eyeglasses, contact lenses, or refractive surgery. Over 85% of visually impaired people live in low- and middle-income countries. 79% of all blindness is due to age-related cataract, the leading cause of blindness. Cataract surgery and the correction of refractive errors are among the most cost-effective health interventions.
The WHO statistics also say that age-related causes of visual impairment and blindness are increasing, as is blindness due to uncontrolled diabetes. Blindness caused by infectious diseases is decreasing globally, due to public health action. Blinding trachoma affects 40 million people today, compared to 360 million in 1985.
Approximately 1.4 million children under age 15 are blind, yet approximately half of all childhood blindness can be avoided by treating diseases early and by correcting abnormalities such as cataract and glaucoma at birth.
In Bangladesh more than 750,000 people are blind among 30+ population, of which 80% are due to cataract. According to official estimate, approximately 120,000 cataract patients are added every year. Over 6 million people in Bangladesh need vision correction by spectacles and other means. Approximately 150,000 irreversible blind require rehabilitation. There are about 40,000 visually impaired women and children in Bangladesh, of whom an estimated 12,000 have cataract.
It is a matter of concern that 80% of the visually impaired persons live in rural areas where the treatment facilities are very poor as 90% of the doctors and paramedics are urban-based.
The government is working to achieve goals set under Vision 2020. The National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital is coordinating the overall activities at national level. There are separate eye care units in all medical collage hospitals and district level general hospitals.
A large number of hospitals in the private and non-government sectors and many international organisations are working to address avoidable blindness in the country and supporting the government in the development of eye care sector.

The writer is Project Coordinator, Dhaka Urban Comprehensive Eye Care Project.