Ray of hope in eye healthcare

The rate of blindness in Bangladesh has dropped by 35 percent over the last two decades, finds a national survey.

Although the rate of blindness has fallen, 19 percent of the population aged 30 and above still suffers from different types of visual impairment. The global rate of such cases are 30 percent, it said.

The study titled "Nationwide Blindness Survey 2020" also found that more than 80 percent of the blindness cases are avoidable with timely intervention.

Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB), with technical and financial support from the National Eye Care, conducted the survey aimed at finding the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment among the population aged 30 and above and their causes.

Data was collected between November 2020 and January 2021 from 18,810 participants from both urban and rural areas of all 64 districts.

The survey results will be made public today.

According to the report, the prevalence of blindness from cataract was one percent which equates to 534,000 people.

A nationwide survey on blindness conducted in 1999-2000 had found the prevalence of blindness to be 1.53 percent, with a total of 650,000 blindness cases from cataract.

Blindness means inability to count fingers from a distance of 10 feet in day light while visual impairment means vision related problems.

However, the country's population has increased significantly in the last two decades and the average life expectancy has also increased, the study said.

"Spectacle coverage was found to be 26 percent among the people aged over 30 years," it added.

The survey recommended that a planned approach be taken for managing eye diseases to reduce eye health morbidity. It also said eye care services could be expanded through establishing community vision centres in all upazila health complexes across the country.

The government had initiated National Eye Care programme in 2005 with a target to reduce blindness by 50 percent aligning with the global target of Vision 2020, aimed at eliminating avoidable blindness around the world.

Dr AHM Enayet Hussain, an ophthalmologist and director general (Medical Education) of the Directorate General of Health Services, said, "Blindness decreasing in the country is a great news. Our progress in this regard is very satisfactory. Still there is a concern about impairment of vision, but it is not a threat to public health. We can easily prevent it."

Globally, three out of every 10 people are living with some forms of visual impairment, which equates to a staggering 2.2 billion people with impaired vision. There are 43.3 million blind people worldwide and another 295 million people with moderate to severe visual impairment. Besides, 258 million people experience mild vision impairment, according to the report.