State Of Visually-Impaired: ‘80% of blindness’ causes avoidable’

The number of blind people globally stands between 40 and 45 million, and is expected to rise by 2 million every years


Ppi March 14, 2012

KARACHI: An estimated 1.5 million visually-impaired people in Pakistan cause an annual loss of Rs63 billion in lost productivity, said senior members of Ophthalmological Society of Pakistan here on Tuesday. About 80% of the prevalent causes of blindness in Pakistan, however, are either avoidable or can be helped with optical devices, the members said. The number of blind people globally stands between 40 and 45 million, and is expected to rise by 2 million every years to 54 million by the year 2020.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14th, 2012.

COMMENTS (1)

Tony C. | 12 years ago | Reply

Being elderly my eyes have deteriorated over the last few years, but due to finding an excellent eye doctor they have improved to almost perfect. The only problem is that the treatment was expensive, and this is the rub. There are treatments for many eye problems, but many people probably cannot afford them. One could say that the Government should pay for it, but does it have enough money?

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