South East Asia’s Eye Health Needs Under the Spotlight in Hyderabad

A month after World Sight Day (October 9, 2014) ended with the call “No more Avoidable Blindness”, IAPB and the L V Prasad Eye Institute  (LVPEI) have invited key players in the South East Asia region for a workshop to discuss and plan to reduce avoidable blindness down by 25%, by the year 2019. The workshop is a World Health Organization (WHO) Regional workshop and will be held at the L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

4 out of 5 visually impaired people are avoidably so. Research shows that every dollar spent on eye health has a two-fold return on investment - in developing countries, home to 90% of all visual impairment, there is a four-fold return. Yet current estimates put the number of people living with significant visual impairment at 285 million, 39 million of whom are blind.

In May 2013, the WHO launched a ‘Global Action Plan’ for the prevention of Avoidable Blindness and Visual Impairment, focusing on delivering ‘Universal Eye Health’ over the next 5 years. The Action Plan urges member nations to bring the rate of blindness and visual impairment down by 25%, by 2019. It focuses on generating evidence, developing deeper integration of eye health with wider health systems and building multi-sectoral partnerships to meet its goals.

Three WHO regions – Eastern Mediterranean, the Americas and the Western Pacific - have developed regional action plans to deliver on this vision. The WHO South East Asia Region will now hold a regional workshop to consult and build a regional plan for this region too. The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) is working with partners to help draw eye health expertise from 11 countries in the South East region, and to draw attention to the fact that governments are key to ensuring access to quality eye health services and eliminating avoidable blindness.

This workshop will be held from 18-20 November 2014 in Hyderabad and will be hosted by the world-renown L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI). Incidentally, Dr Taraprasad Das, Vice-Chair, LVPEI is also IAPB’s regional chair for South East Asia. With 64 delegates, participants include IAPB’s Chief Executive Officer, Peter Ackland.

“Universal Eye Health embodies many critical aspects of successful eye health practice”, he said. “No one should needlessly go blind. Those with permanent sight loss should be able to meet their potential. Together we can deliver on these objectives”.

Dr Taraprasad Das, IAPB South East Asia Regional Chair and Vice-Chair LVPEI will be hosting this crucial workshop. Talking about its importance, he said, “A quarter of the world’s population lives in South East Asia. The Global Action Plan’s success hinges on the region’s performance over the next five years, and this workshop will be the first step in ensuring such an outcome. 90% of the world’s visually impaired can be found in developing countries – but then, so are the solutions”.

Over three days, the delegates will be discussing key aspects of eye health delivery in the region including crucial elements like Health systems, success indicators and monitoring, universal health coverage, country action plans and more. The workshop will include both group discussions and lecture sessions. Major international partners, key government representatives from 11 countries in South East Asia, WHO Geneva and SEARO, IAPB and other key organizations will be represented here. The expected outcome is a regional plan that will help all the stakeholders plan for and deliver a region where no one is avoidably blind, and those with permanent vision loss live to their fullest.

Notes to Editors:

About IAPB
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) is the coordinating membership organisation leading international efforts in blindness prevention activities. IAPB’s mission is to eliminate the main causes of avoidable blindness and visual impairment by bringing together governments and non-governmental agencies tofacilitate the planning, development and implementation of sustainable national eye care programmes. Please visit: www.iapb.org

Global Facts:

About 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide: 39 million are blind and 246 million have low vision (severe or moderate visual impairment)

Preventable causes are as high as 80% of the total global visual impairment burden. About 90% of the world's visually impaired people live in developing countries.

To know more about the Global Action Plan, please visit: www.iapb.org/advocacy/who-action-plan

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