By Iliya Kure
An International Non-Governmental Organisation, Sightsavers, is calling for increased financial support to treat over a million cases of cataract in developing countries of the world.
In a statement to mark the 2017 World Sight Day, its Chief Executive Officer, Caroline Harper, expressed concern over untreated cases, as well as possible rise in avoidable blindness and visual impairment across the globe.
“I am very concerned to hear that the levels of avoidable blindness, which had been steadily declining, are now projected to increase significantly over the next few decades,” the statement says.
A Research published by ‘The Lancet’ on the 2017 World Sight Day, cautions that unless efforts are stepped up, the number of people who are blind will triple within the next four decades. The biggest cause according to the publication will be cataract.
In a campaign for the fundraising tagged “final push”, Sightsavers says, “through the UK Aid Match scheme, donations to this appeal will be matched pound for pound, doubling the impact of the UK public’s support”.
According to Sightsavers, the highest levels of blindness is found in developing countries, with parts of sub-Saharan Africa amongst the worst affected areas.
In Nigeria, across all ages 1.09% are blind and 4.23% are blind and across all ages’ 1.09% are blind and 4.23% have a severe or moderate visual impairment.
Statistics reveals that, “the leading causes of blindness and visual impairment are uncorrected refractive errors (123.8 million people worldwide) and cataract (65.2 million worldwide), followed by age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma.
Cataract is treatable, but many countries don’t have facilities readily available to handle the cases.
“This means we must redouble our efforts, especially to treat cataracts which are the biggest cause of blindness in developing countries. Our partnership with the UK government will put fresh impetus into our ‘A Million Miracles’ campaign,” says Sightsavers document.
“We are over 75% of the way there so this is the final push to reach our target.”
