Global campaign focuses on preventable blindness

WHO has warned that unless urgent action is taken the number of people who go blind will double in the next 20 years. It also says that many of the 45m blind people worldwide could be treated. The organisation says that governments should recognise the annual global cost of blindness, estimated at US$25bn, could be reduced by investing in programmes to restore and improve people's sight. 'Up to 80 per cent of global blindness is avoidable', said Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of WHO. 'It either results from the conditions that could have prevented or can be successfully treated with the sight restored.' WHO will follow similar policies as it did in its successful effort to eradicate smallpox for its 'Vision 2020: The Right to Sight' campaign, which will be implemented through four five-year plans, the first one starting next year. Five conditions are being prioritised immediately by the campaign: cataract, trachoma, onchocerciasis, childhood blindness, and refractive errors and low vision. The choice, said Dr Brundtland, was based on the burden of blindness they represented and the feasibility of interventions to prevent and treat them. 'Cataract is responsible for nearly 50 per cent of global blindness,' said Dr Brundtland. 'We are looking at a disorder that is associated with ageing and affects all populations around the world.' She stressed that fighting cataract, in this International Year of the Older Persons, would be a high priority. Clare Short, the Government's international development secretary, signed a declaration in support of the campaign, which will co-ordinate work by international charities, including Britain's Sight Savers International. Richard Porter, executive director of Sightsavers, said: 'By getting simple and inexpensive treatments to people who need them, we intend to make blindness a thing of the past.'