WORLD VIEW Vision impairment in the Pacific region

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) designated Western Pacific region as one of great diversity. It contains the most populous country, China with its 1.2 billion people, and many small Pacific island countries, some with populations of less 10 000. The diversity also extends to politics, sociocultural life, and the economies of the countries. The region is made up of the land mass of China and Mongolia, the Korean peninsula, Japan, Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), ASEAN countries (Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam), the continental land mass of Australia, New Zealand, and the island nations grouped as Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian (Table 1). The diversity is also seen in the availability and provision of eye care to the people of the region.