A new survey on blindness has found that the rate of blindness among people over 30 years of age is around 1%.
This shows a decrease in the incidence of blindness as the previous national survey in 1999-2000 put the figure at over 1.53%.
With financial assistance from the World Health Organisation, the latest survey was conducted by the National Institute of Ophthalmology on 7,200 people.
While addressing a seminar yesterday, Professor Deen Mohammad Noorul Huq, director general of the Directorate General of Health Services, said the outcomes of the survey would be officially revealed the next month.
The seminar styled “Sensitisation of journalists on eye care Programmes of Bangladesh” was held at National Institute of Ophthalmology (NIO). It was organised to celebrate the World Sight Day 2014.
Professor Huq said the rate of blindness had come down to around 1% but declined to disclose any further details.
“Tk20 crore was the budget allocated for the five-year national eye care operation plan. Although the money was limited, the success came as a result of smooth coordination among officials concerned, different national and international NGOs and donor agencies,” he said.
“At present, quality treatment facilities for eye disease are available at 47 district hospitals but still we have many challenges to overcome in order to prevent avoidable blindness,” he added.
Professor Dr Jalal Ahmed, line director of national eye care and director of the NIO, presided over the seminar while Dr Shawkat Ara Shakoor, deputy program manager of national eye care, Professor Dr AHM Enayet Hussain, pediatric ophthalmologist at the NIO, and several others addressed the seminar.
Dr Jalal said district sadar hospitals are equipped with dedicated eye operation theatres for free cataract surgery.
“A total of 103 NGOs and private hospitals offer cost-effective cataract services. The cataract surgery rate has increased from 957 to 1,300 per million people but it has to reach 3,000 per million,” he added.
Dr Shawkat said five to seven million children in the country have been suffering from refractive errors but almost 50% of them are unaware of the problem.
“Those who are prescribed spectacles do not use those regularly or take spectacles of wrong configuration. In order to save children from blindness, there should be more screening in schools,” she said.
Professor Huq said 200,000 new people contract blindness every year but the majority of the cases are preventable. He urged the media to publish more contents on the subject to create mass awareness about the treatment available in public and other hospitals.
