Kolkata;
World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday pitched for reducing the avoidable blindness and visual impairment by at least 25 per cent within 2019.
To reduce avoidable blindness and visual impairment, universal access to comprehensive eye care Services should be ensured, it said.
There is a need to review and reinforce existing measures so that nobody suffers visual impairment and those with unavoidable vision loss can still achieve their full potential, a WHO director said.
The WHO Global Action Plan (GAP) for the prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment 2014-2019 emphasises on improving eye health for everyone and reducing the prevalence of avoidable blindness and visual impairment by 25 per cent by the year 2019, the director said on World Sight Day being observed on Thursday. ‘
Notably, The South East Asia Region has an estimated 12 million blind people including 8 million from India.
More than 50 per cent of all blindness is caused by cataract which accounts for 33 per cent of visual impairment.
