Vision correction on global health agenda

At a WHO consultation meeting in Geneva last month, it was recommended that the definitions be based on presenting vision rather than best corrected visual acuity.
Dr Gopal Prasad Pokharel, WHO medical officer for the prevention of blindness and deafness, told optician that the recommendation was now being considered for approval but the process would take 'considerable deliberation and time'. Until then, the current definitions would continue to apply.
Visiting London last month, Professor Brien Holden, chair of the organisation's working group on refractive error, said that the aim of his group was to eliminate avoidable blindness and impaired vision due to uncorrected refractive error by the year 2020. As many as 250 million people worldwide currently had no access to any form of vision correction.
He stressed that the problem was not confined to developing countries. In Australia, 50 per cent of elderly people in nursing homes who had significantly impaired vision had uncorrected refractive error and 25 per cent were legally blind for this reason.
'This situation is absurd when we have so many opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists to provide those services. Putting this on the agenda is important for our future,' he said.
Professor Holden was speaking at the British Contact Lens Association's Australia Day, which celebrated the contribution of Australian researchers to contact lens practice. He was one of three speakers from the Cornea and Contact Lens Research Unit and Cooperative Research Centre for Eye Research and Technology, soon to be known as Vision CRC (Cooperative Research Centre), at the University of New South Wales.
A full report of Australia Day will be published in optician's Contact Lens Monthly (November 7).
alison.ewbankrbi.co.uk