Avoidable blindness: a world problem.

Blindness prevention programmes: past, present, and future.

Blindness and visual impairment have far-reaching implications for society, the more so when it is realized that 80% of visual disability is avoidable. The marked increase in the size of the elderly population, with their greater propensity for visually disabling conditions, presents a further challenge in this respect. However, if available knowledge and skills were made accessible to those co...

The resolution of the world health assembly on the elimination of avoidable blindness.

Trachoma: looking forward to Global Elimination of Trachoma by 2020 (GET 2020).

There is fortunately increasing international awareness of the problem of needless blindness from trachoma and enhanced international cooperation. This is exemplified by the World Health Organization Alliance for the Global Elimination of Blinding Trachoma by 2020 (GET 2020), the World Health Assembly resolution 51.11, 1998, and the inclusion of trachoma as a priority under the disease control ...

Avoidable Blindness: Development and Implementation of Surveillance System for Trachoma in Post-Endemic Countries How the World Health Organization supports its Member States

The challenge of uncorrected refractive error: driving the agenda of the Durban Declaration on refractive error and service development.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the challenge of uncorrected refractive error globally, as well as to discuss recent advocacy successes and innovative programs designed to address the need for broader refractive error service development, particularly in developing countries. The World Health Organization's VISION 2020: The Right to Sight program first posed the challenge to nationa...

Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness in Western Rwanda: Blindness in a Postconflict Setting

BACKGROUND The World Health Organization estimates that there were 37 million blind people in 2002 and that the prevalence of blindness was 9% among adults in Africa aged 50 years or older. Recent surveys indicate that this figure may be overestimated, while a survey from southern Sudan suggested that postconflict areas are particularly vulnerable to blindness. The aim of this study was to cond...