ISLAMABAD, April 28: Childhood blindness is the second largest cause of blind population in the world and over 80,000 blind children, out of around 1.5 million worldwide, are present in Pakistan.

This was stated by the regional director of World Health Organization (WHO), Eastern Mediterranean Region, Dr Hussein A. Gezairy, while speaking at the opening session of a four-day regional planning meeting on childhood blindness at Al Shifa Trust Eye Hospital on Monday.

Delegates from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco and Tunisia are also attending the meeting.

The director said, ‘unfortunately, half a million children go blind every year and three out of five die from causes that lead to blindness.’

He appreciated the steps taken in Pakistan to expand eye care services at district level to serve the rural population. The WHO, international NGOs, and national organizations like Al Shifa Trust and Pakistan Institute of Community Ophthalmology are also working with the health ministry to reduce avoidable blindness, including childhood blindness, in Pakistan, he added.

Mr Gezairy said recent research on the economic cost of blindness indicated that blindness costed the community billions of dollars in terms of loss of productivity, care, rehabilitation and special education.

The regional director feared the number of blind people would double in next 20 years if the situation was not addressed.

He said blindness and severe visual impairment had far- reaching social, economic and personal implications. When a child goes blind, a serious barrier to the development of the child at a formative state was created, he added.

He said it was estimated that around 200,000 blind children were present in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. A majority of such children live in countries with a large population, low income and relatively weak health care facilities, he added.

More than 80 per cent of the causes of childhood blindness are avoidable, such as corneal scarring which is caused due to Vitamin A deficiency; measles, harmful traditional practices, infective corneal ulcers, cataract, and glaucoma, Mr Gezairy said.

The main causes of blindness are cataract (60 per cent), complications of trachoma, glaucoma, refractive error, low vision and childhood blindness, he added.

However, he said primary health care had made a great contribution towards prevention of childhood blindness through Vitamin A supplementation during routine immunization, supplementary immunization activities, timely prophylaxis against eye infections, and advocacy for better nutrition and avoidance of harmful eye medicines.

Similarly, refractive errors that could easily be corrected by a pair of spectacles are another simple and easily preventable cause of blindness in children, he added.

“We need to work together with primary health care workers, refractionist and schoolteachers to make refractive and low vision services easily available and affordable to children and community.”

He said services for cases that needed surgical intervention were available at only a few centres in this region, while lack of trained human resources, especially paediatric ophthalmologists and refractionists, and limited training facilities were the major obstacles in controlling eye diseases.

Mr Gezairy said four cadres of health workers — paediatric- oriented ophthalmologists, low vision professionals, refractionists and primary health care workers — were particularly important in reducing childhood blindness.