Vision 2020 campaign fights for people's right to sight

Vision 2020 campaign fights for people's right to sight

JAKARTA (JP): People's ignorance about eye care, poor
nutrition and the inadequate number of ophthalmologists combine
to keep the incidence of preventable blindness high in Indonesia.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says an estimated three
million of Indonesia's 206 million people are blind. And even
worse, this number increases by 600 every day.

To reverse this trend, WHO and the Global Task Force, which
includes several non-governmental organizations, launched last
week a national drive called Vision 2020, to help eliminate
preventable blindness in Indonesia. The time frame to achieve
this goal is 20 years, or in the year 2020.

The campaign was launched by Vice President Megawati
Soekarnoputri on Feb. 15, the day after the Intercountry
Consultation on the Development of Regional Strategy for Vision
2020 opened. The meeting ended on Feb. 17.

WHO Southeast Asia regional director Uton Muchtar Rafei said
that in this day and age, with major advances in medical
technology, "it is unacceptable that we have not been able to
better control preventable blindness. It is unacceptable that
even today, millions who could be saved go blind".

There are 45 million blind people in the world today and there
are three times as many people with impaired vision. Of this
number, 15 million, or nearly one-third of the world's total
number of blind people, live in Southeast Asia.

According to WHO, most cases of blindness can be prevented or
cured. These include blindness caused by cataracts and Vitamin A
deficiency, and childhood blindness. Trachoma and glaucoma also
account for a number of cases of blindness in the country.

"Unfortunately, many are severely disabled visually from
easily correctable or preventable causes. Some cannot see merely
because they do not have a pair of glasses to correct the
refractive error," Uton said in a speech at the launch of the
Vision 2020 campaign.

Ninety percent of the cases of blindness in the region are
preventable or curable at very modest costs, according to Uton.

He said those suffering blindness from cataracts could easily
be cured through a simple surgery. A quick operation can be
performed to remove the cataract and insert a lens for as little
as US$15.

"Yet it is hard to believe that we have close to 10 million
people in our region who have gone blind due to cataracts," Uton
said.

In Indonesia -- the country with the third highest incidence
of blindness in the world -- there are at least 1.5 million
cataract cases.

"There is a need to increase the number of people who can be
trained to perform this simple operation. Without an increase in
the number of service providers, thousands will remain
permanently blind," Uton said.

Indonesia's some 500 ophthalmologists perform around 40,000
cataract operations per year -- lower than in Bangladesh and
Thailand, where 60,000 cataract operations are performed each
year.

Around 630,000 cataract operations per year need to be
performed to cure the 1.5 million Indonesians suffering from
cataracts.

"At the present rate of 40,000 cataract operations per year,
it will take 25 to 30 years to clear the backlog of 1.5 million
cataract cases," Uton warned.

But people suffering from cataract can breathe a sigh of
relief. According to the Ministry of Health's director general of
community health, Azrul Azwar, the Indonesian Ophthalmologists
Association has agreed to train general practitioners at
community health centers to give them the skill to perform
cataract operations.

"In the first phase, the ophthalmologists will train the
general practitioners practicing in areas which have a high
incidence of cataract cases," he said.

Productivity

According to WHO, the global cost of blindness is around US$25
billion in lost productivity. If the costs of educating and
rehabilitating the blind were included, the price would be twice
as high. In fact, the worldwide cost would rise to over $75
billion annually if the expense of caregivers was also taken into
account.

"In a country like Indonesia, the cost of blindness is
estimated to be $1 billion annually in lost productivity and in
special education and rehabilitation for the blind," Uton said.

He said programs for the prevention and control of blindness
were among the most cost-effective public health interventions.

"Blindness aggravates poverty, therefore preventing and
relieving blindness are effective measure of alleviating
poverty." (ste)