Poverty and blindness in Africa

Abstract

Africa carries a disproportionate responsibility in terms of blindness and visual impairment. With approximately 10 per cent of the world’s population, Africa has 19 per cent of the world’s blindness. It is no surprise that this reality also mirrors the situation in terms of the burden of world poverty. There is an increasing recognition of the need to highlight the link between poverty, development and health care. Blindness, disabling visual impairment and the overall lack of eye‐care services are too often the result of social, economic and developmental challenges of the developing world. The state of eye care in Africa stands in alarming contrast to that in the rest of the world. Poor practitioner‐to‐patient ratios, absence of eye‐care personnel, inadequate facilities, poor state funding and a lack of educational programs are the hallmarks of eye care in Africa, with preventable and treatable conditions being the leading cause of blindness. Eye diseases causing preventable blindness are often the result of a combination of factors such as poverty, lack of education and inadequate health‐care services. The challenge that Vision 2020 has set itself in Africa is enormous. Africa is not a homogenous entity, the inter‐ and intra‐country differences in economic development, prevalence of disease, delivery infrastructure and human resources amplify the challenges of meeting eye‐care needs. The successful implementation of Vision 2020 programs will be hindered without the development of a comprehensive, co‐ordinated strategy that is cognisant of the differences that exist and the need for comprehensive solutions that are rooted in the economic and political realities of the continent as well as the individual countries and regions within countries. This strategy should recognise the need for economic growth that results in greater state funded eye‐care services that focus on health promotion to ensure the prevention of eye disease, the development of eye clinics in hospitals and health clinics, and the training of the appropriate human resources.

The prevalence of visual impairment and blindness in underserved rural areas: a crucial issue for future

“…Poverty is associated with cataract and blindness. 16 A study conducted in Pakistan showed that blindness was markedly more frequent in poor people. 17 The prevalence of blindness in low income countries is five times higher than their high income counterparts in a global level.…”

Trainingsprogramm zur vitreoretinalen Chirurgie in Nairobi, Kenia, in den Jahren 2000 – 2006

“…Gleichzeitig sind die Ressourcen für eine rechtzeitige Behandlung der Patienten im Sinne einer Erhaltung des Augenlichts, die für die meisten zugrunde liegenden Erkrankungen -neben der diabetischen Retinopathie in erster Linie Katarakt, Trachom und Glaukom -technisch problemlos mçglich ist, im subsaharischen Afrika mit Ausnahme der Republik Südafrika vollkommen inadäquat [8,12]. Um die sehr ehrgeizigen Ziele des WHO-Programms "VISION 2020" für Afrika [21] auch nur ansatzweise zu verwirklichen, stünden eine wirksame Armutsbekämpfung und die Allokation substanzieller Ressourcen für die Behandlung der wichtigsten Augenkrankheiten durch die Regierungen der betroffenen Länder im Vordergrund [6,13]; realistisch ist dies bei allem Optimismus gegenwärtig nicht und die aktuelle politische Entwicklung in Kenia lässt eher eine Verschlechterung befürch-ten. Zwischen den WHO-Zielen und dem gegenwärtigen Status klafft aber eine derart große Lücke, dass auch unterhalb des "VISION 2020"-Programms ein erheblicher Raum für realistisch erzielbare Verbesserungen besteht.…”

Recruitment and selection strategies in optometric education towards addressing human resource disparities in sub-Saharan Africa

“…This gross inequity is mirrored in eye care, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing a huge burden of blindness (Naidoo et al 2014;Lewallen and Kello 2009) and acute shortages of eye care workers (Naidoo 2007) and yet, with its population of 936.1 million people (World Bank n.d.), only nine of the 48 countries have optometric education programmes (Oduntan et al 2014).…”