Preventable blindness

Preventable blindness is one of the most tragic and wasteful health problems. By eliminating avoidable blindness we can dramatically improve the education, employment and quality of life for many millions of people. The treatments available for the prevention and cure of blindness are among the most successful and cost effective of all health interventions.

Orissa has an estimated population of 37 million people, 75% of whom live in rural areas. With a blindness prevalence rate of 1.40%, an estimated 5,13,897 people are blind. The main causes of blindness are cataract, uncorrected refractive errors / aphakia, glaucoma, corneal scar. Of these causes, 80 – 90% are preventable or treatable. There is a shortage and maldistribution of health manpower; infrastructures and facilities to tackle the identified eye care problem. The lack of adequate & appropriate training programmes in the state also compounds this problem in addition to the brain drain of trained eye care professionals.

An estimated 102,779 Oriya’s become blind each year, about 61,667 because of cataract alone. Cataract surgical services are available in most of the existing eye units in the state. Current performance of the cataract surgery in the state is around 86,386 eyes per year against the need for 3, 43, 602 eyes per year. There is acute shortage and maldistribution of ophthalmic personnel, with over 80% of present personnel in the big cities of the state, the majority of the paramedical personnel who did not have any formal training.

Keerti Bhusan Pradhan Senior Faculty LAICO-Aravind Eye Care System (A WHO Collaborating Centre) 1-Anna Nagar, Madurai-625020 Tamilnadu, India Phone:0452-4356500/4356514 (direct) Mobile: 9443830116 Fax: 0452-2530984 Email: keerti@aravind.org Website: www.aravind.org