UK House of Lords Debate Global Blindness

45 Million People Blind, but "it doesn't have to be this way", says UK government spokesman. Progress on tackling avoidable blindness welcomed in House of Lords debate but greater action is required if blindness is to be eliminated

London (PRWEB) November 7, 2009 -- At a debate in the House of Lords on progress towards implementing the aims of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight, a global campaign to eliminate avoidable blindness, the government pledged its support for action to address this disability.

There are 45 million blind people in the world and a further 269 million who are seriously visually impaired, yet 80% of blindness is preventable or treatable. 90% of blindness occurs in the developing world and more than twice as many women are blind as men.

Lord Crisp, former Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Service and Chairman of Sightsavers International recognised that the impact of this stretches far beyond health, “Eye health should be seen as key to the millennium development goals, including education, women’s rights and employment.”

The annual costs in lost economic productivity due to avoidable blindness and vision loss have been estimated at US$ 42 billion . Cataract surgery is one of the most cost-effective treatments that can be offered in developing countries, allowing people to increase their economic productivity by up to 1500% of the cost of the surgery during the first post-operative year.

Speaking of the impact avoidable blindness has on individuals, Lord Brett, government spokesperson for the Department for International Development, stated:

“There are many health challenges across the world, and when it comes to avoidable blindness, it does not have to be this way. In the vast majority of cases, tried, tested, simple and cost-effective interventions already exist for blindness and other visual impairments.”

Several Lords praised the work that was already being done to tackle avoidable blindness, highlighting the success of VISION 2020 in generating broad support from across the public and private sectors in the fight against avoidable blindness, citing significant corporate support from Merck and Standard Chartered Bank’s Seeing is Believing programme.

However, there was recognition that much more needs to be done. Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Dholakia, said, “There can be no excuse. Blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective in healthcare.”

Three strategies were highlighted by Lord Crisp for tackling the problem: ensuring that eye care is fully integrated into governments’ national health care plans; training more health workers, especially in Africa; and giving greater emphasis to disability in development programmes, citing disability as being implicated in at least 20% of world poverty. A meeting is now planned with Department for International Development to review the response to global blindness.

This is a joint media release for VISION 2020: The Right to Sight and Seeing is Believing.

For further information please contact:
Ms Abi Smith
International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB)
asmith(at)iapb(dot)org; +44 20 7927 2974

Ms Yuki Finch
Standard Chartered Bank (Seeing is Believing)
yuki(dot)finch(at)sc(dot)com; +44 20 7885 8888

Notes to editors:

NB: video recording of the debate is available from parliament.uk: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=5002&st=17:51:10

About VISION 2020: The Right to Sight

VISION 2020 is the global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness, a joint programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) with an international membership of NGOs, professional associations, eye care institutions and corporations.

VISION 2020 members are working together to eliminate avoidable blindness.
Please visit www.VISION2020.org

About Seeing is Believing (SiB)
Seeing is Believing (SiB) is a global initiative to help tackle avoidable blindness, and is a collaboration between Standard Chartered and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) (registered charity, No. 1100559). IAPB is the leading umbrella organisation for NGOs working in the field of eye care. Together with the World Health Organization, it launched ‘VISION 2020: The Right to Sight’, a global campaign to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020.

To date, Seeing is Believing has raised over US$ 17 million for blindness initiatives and plans to invest a further US$ 20 million by 2015. Seeing is Believing is the single largest contributor to the development of VISION 2020 programmes through IAPB.
Please visit www.seeingisbelieving.org.uk    

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