EyeWorld Asia-Pacific June 2014 Issue

66 EWAP NEWS & OPINION June 2014 on encompassing other age-related disorders such as AMD, diabetic retinopathy, etc.” With existing cataract programs, “The low- hanging fruits have been plucked, but the approach should become even more comprehensive as we go along,” he said. “As the disease burden goes from cataract to conditions such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, etc., patients require continued care to offset the risk of blindness due to these disorders,” he added. “While one-time surgical interventions effectively took care of reducing cataract blindness, the newer problems require surveillance and different treatment options based on individual response. At our institution at the Aravind Eye Care System, we have established 45 vision care centers, each of which caters to a population of around 75,000 people.” The key, he said, will be accessibility, more than affordability: “People are not going to travel far because they have been used to getting services at their doorstep. Internet penetration and mobile phone technology has permeated to the rural households and hence effective use of these media to educate patients to access a primary vision care center should be the goal.” Broadly speaking, the strategy in this case, according to Dr. Li, would shift from intervention in the form of surgery to education and prevention. “Moving to the new blindness causes like AMD and especially diabetic retinopathy, I think it’s better to promote or enhance people’s awareness,” he said. In China, in addition to surgical missions and developing local resources, “we also have a lot of public forums and write articles in newspapers to educate people on diabetes and AMD,” he added. Ongoing struggle The Lancet study highlights the positive experiences of ophthalmologists working in countries like China and India, whose efforts through the years have made a significant impact on a truly life-altering condition. It should also be noted, however, that the study’s analysis combined with the experiences of doctors in the region demonstrates that the situation is not lacking in complexity, and the struggle gathers nuance as improving healthcare and healthcare delivery increase longevity and populations continue to age around the world. Programs aiming to eradicate blindness will thus need to adapt to continue making progress. In any case, ophthalmologists such as Drs. Li and Prajna remain committed to the struggle, and continue to work on the eradication of all preventable and treatable causes of blindness around the world. EWAP Reference 1. Bourne RRA, Stevens GA, White RA, et al. Causes of vision loss worldwide, 1990-2010: A systemic analysis. The Lancet Global Health . Dec 2013;1(6):e339-e349. Editors’ note: Drs. Li and Prajna have no financial interests related to this article. Contact information Li: xiaorli@163.com Prajna: prajna@aravind.org done research into blindness causes in Spain. “All researchers in ocular epidemiology have to be thankful for this kind of work that helps all other research teams to have a worldwide picture of the evolution of blindness and visual impairment prevalence and its causes,” Ms. Rius said. She found it surprising that blindness had decreased even though there is a worldwide aging population and many eye diseases are age-related. Despite encouraging improvements, the data show there still needs to be more information on blindness causes in central Africa, central and eastern Europe, and the Caribbean, the investigators noted. Research into worldwide blindness causes will continue, Dr. Bourne said, noting that the research group has received a grant from the Brien Holden Vision Institute. The money received will enable the investigators’ database to incorporate more recent data and make the data accessible to anyone around the world with an internet connection. The first internet site for this part of the research will be hosted by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and should be ready this spring, Dr. Bourne said. EWAP Reference 1. Bourne RRA, Stevens GA, White RA, et al. Causes of vision loss worldwide, 1990-2010: A systemic analysis. The Lancet Global Health . Dec 2013;1(6):e339-e349. Editors’ note: The sources interviewed have no financial interests related to this article. Contact information Bourne : rb@rupertbourne.co.uk Rius : arius@euot.upc.edu Blindness - from page 64 Blindness - from page 65