Bill Harvey: World anthem

Some stark facts in the newly published WHO Report on Vision.

‘One billion have a vision impairment (VI) that could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed.’ ‘The prevalence in low and middle-income regions is estimated to be four times higher than in high-income regions.’ ‘Eye care is a good investment. Preventing eye conditions and vision impairment will lead to improved productivity and reduce informal and intangible costs.’ ‘In the coming decades ... there will be a substantial increase in the number of people with vision impairment and blindness.’

Unusually, optometrists and opticians get a mention. ‘Critical human resource shortages have been identified for optometrists and other allied ophthalmic personnel, such as opticians, etc.’ ‘The acceptance of optometry as a profession remains an issue in many countries and is an important advocacy issue going forward in many countries.’ Many countries simply ‘did not recognise optometry as a profession or there was no established educational requirement for optometrists.’