Lack of Vision Impairment Awareness in Asia-Pacific Region

Blindness and vision impairment remain a major public health issue not only in rural but also in urban areas Asia Pacific. 90% of the world’s blindness exists in developing countries, and over half of all blindness occurs in the Asia Pacific. Poverty and blindness are linked, and the elimination of avoidable blindness is required in achieving the millennium development goals in the region. The number of older people in the Asia-Pacific region is rising at an unprecedented rate and it is at the forefront of the global phenomenon of population ageing.

The number of older people in the Asia-Pacific region is rising at an unprecedented rate and it is at the forefront of the global phenomenon of population ageing. Japan has the highest old age population, which will rise to around 75% by 2050, the International Monetary Fund. According to published studies, the prevalence of myopia is highest in east Asia, where China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore have a prevalence of approximately 50%, and lower in Australia, Europe and north and south America, the WHO. Compared with its Southeast Asian neighbors, Vietnam has a relatively well-established health system.

According to national statistics, more than 100,000 cataract surgeries are performed each year, the vision 2020 Australia Organization. Moreover, around 72% of Cataract surgeries are financed through health insurance in Vietnam, the IPAB Organization. A lack of community awareness about eye health and how to access treatment featured prominently. In Cambodia, over 35% of people reported that they were unaware of treatment options or scared of having an operation. In 2007 Vision 2020 Australia, in partnership with member agencies, developed a 10-year plan to eliminate avoidable blindness and vision impairment in the Asia Pacific. This plan was based on a USD 600 million costing model.

Global Consortium will also expand its focus in accordance with regional eye health needs and Australia’s national interests to include Indonesia, the Philippines, Mongolia, and enhanced coverage in the Pacific. There is a lack of donor tissue across the continent, with waiting lists numbering up to thousands. Myanmar also has an eye bank organized for tissue procurement, but with a waiting list. Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam have eye banks and large waiting lists but are generally unable to procure corneas. Many areas in Asia have unfavorable or confusing legal frameworks for donation and lack funding and infrastructure for health care. In India, the country with the world’s largest corneal blind population, there is a need for about 100,000 corneas annually. But there are only about 17,000 eyes procured a year, of which only about 50% to 60% are utilized.

Unlike in Europe and the U.S., the number of patients in Asia who need a corneal transplantation greatly exceeds the number of corneal donations. In 2015, L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) created history in the field of Corneal Transplantation by becoming the first Institute ever in the world to have performed 20,000 corneal transplants. The Arvind eye care system in India is one of the largest providers of ophthalmology services and performs around 350,000 eye operations in a year. out of which 60% are done at low or no cost.

Established in 2004 by Dr. Dennis Lam, Project Vision is a Hong Kong–based program working at the local level in China to eradicate cataracts. It was developed to respond to several features of cataracts in China. A key feature of Project Vision is the training of local (county level) doctors and other medical personnel to develop teams that can provide high-quality surgeries.