A report issued last November indicates that the world is facing an often overlooked opponent: poor eye health. An area that is often neglected by many health policy makers throughout the globe, eye health plays a crucial role in public health.
Throughout the world, an estimated 285 million people are visually impaired; demographically, about 90% of these people live in developing countries. According to the report, only 3 in 10 people in Africa have access to eye health services, and in many other rural countries, the numbers are even worse. Another demographic study displayed that less than 15% of those suffering from eye conditions received treatment in Nigeria.
What’s more disturbing is the fact that over 80% of this blindness can be easily treated and cured. Over half of the world’s preventable blindness exists in the form of cataracts, a condition that only costs about 60 US dollars to cure. So why isn’t the job getting done? According to the WHO, effective eye health requires a workforce, effective service delivery, adequate funding, and government support and leadership. However, as previously mentioned, government support is often absent. In the continent of Africa where diseases such as HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis are running rampant, it is easy for health policy officials to overlook eye health as an important issue to address. Because of this limited government action and funding, there is a large deficit of skillful health workers, eye health drugs, and medical equipment needed to address these alarming eye health issues.
The report also shows that eye health issues have a huge impact on the global economy. Claire Gilbert, a professor of eye health in London, estimates that the global economy lost about 42 billion dollars in revenue due to preventable blindness and eye health issues; these numbers are only predicted to rise, as the annual global productivity loss is estimated to be 110 billion dollars by 2020 if no intervention programs are employed.
There is also a strong relationship between eye health and poverty. Studies in Kenya, Philippines, and Bangladesh show that people who are visually impaired are much more likely to live in poverty. In these countries, many rely on daily wages to put food on the table for their families. If one of the primary family providers becomes visually impaired, the family’s source of income immediately becomes cut in half, thus forcing the family into poverty. Similarly, studies in rural villages in Tanzania found that women with eye health issues were limited in daily activities such as cooking or caring for their children, thus also reducing the quality of life of the family. It is also because of eye health issues that many children in developing countries are forced to drop out of school, thus drastically reducing the countries’ work force.
In conclusion, eye health, although often overlooked and underestimated, is a crucial aspect to the health of the globe, and should not be ignored.
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ReplyDeletei forgot the link to the article
link: http://africasciencenews.org/asns/index.php/News/Latest/administrator/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2593&Itemid=2
After doing the reading for this week on health systems, it suggested how funds might be reallocated from various programs to others with more need or prevalence or which have greater DALYs. This all seems to go back to addressing the most basic needs first, before we can address those Group 2/Group 3 diseases. Yet, in Africa this is especially difficult as they have widespread prevalence of more complex health issues as well (AIDS/HIV). I think it just further demonstrates how much of health and health financing is a balancing act overall. I think you do bring up a good point that eye health is extremely over-looked, but is still very important for our day-to-day functions.
ReplyDeleteThis article is really interesting! To be honest, I never thought of lack of eye care as a global health issue, even though it is so clear that the negative impacts of blindness are significant. I guess that I, like many of the developing countries tend to think of major diseases like malaria and HIV etc. before I think about eye care. I think that the part that shocked me the most is the fact that 80% is easily treated and cured with a cataracts treatment. We spend so much time and money in attempt to ease the burdens of these larger diseases, knowing that in the end it may not be effective. Here we have a situation where it is guaranteed with the input of money, we would be able to improve the lives of so many people. I guess it does all come down to what is more important, such a hard question to answer. How do we allocate the funds we have most effectively? Is there even a "correct" answer to the question? I think that this is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed, especially because eyesight, as you mentioned, plays such a large role in the development of children and the productiveness of all people.
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