Blindness Prevention and Control

Blindness is one of the major health problems in Ethiopia. Cataract, trachoma, glaucoma and childhood blindness are the major causes of loss of eyesight. Trachoma and cataract alone constitute more than 70% of the total blindness in the country.

The main causes of childhood blindness appear to be corneal scarring, which is related to measles, Vitamin-A deficiency, acute infections and trauma. More than 80% of all blindness in Ethiopia is preventable or curable.

The major targets of this program is to develop a national strategic plan, perform about 36,000 cataract surgeries per year, and assist in developing an administrative directive for corneal transplantation, and to conduct survey on prevalence of blindness. Ultimately, it aims to reduce the prevalence of blindness from 1.5% to 0.7%.

Achievements

• The launching of the Global Initiative Vision 2020;
• Establishment of National and Regional Committees for the Prevention of Blindness;
• Development of national Five-Year Strategic Vision 2020 Plans on Eye Care;
• Development and standardization of cataract surgeons’ training curriculum;
• An Administrative Directive was developed and consequently a National Eye Bank was established;
• The number of ophthalmologists increased from 63 to 76 and the number of primary eye care units increased from 46 to 54;
• Secondary eye care units increased from 18 to 23 in the country;
• The number of cataract surgeries also increased from around 20,000 per year in 2002 to 25,000 per year in 2004 and

The number of lid-surgeries for trachomatous-trichiasis increased from around 15,000 in 2002 to 35,000 in 2004.