Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness in Kunming, China

Uncorrected Refractive Errors, Presbyopia and Spectacle Coverage: Results from a Rapid Assessment of Refractive Error Survey

“…[7][8][9] Recently the Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) was field tested successfully in several countries across the world. [10][11][12] In this study, a methodology named Rapid Assessment of Refractive Errors (RARE) was used to assess the prevalence of visual impairment due to uncorrected refractive errors, presbyopia and spectacle coverage in subjects aged 15 to 50 years.…”

Cataract surgery in developing countries

“…The proportion of IOL was low in Paraguay and Peru and highest in Argentina, Mexico and Chile [35 ]. In China, 64.8% of the eyes had IOL [38]. In Bangladesh, 54.9% had IOL and 45.1% were aphakic [32].…”

“…In Bangladesh and Nigeria, surgical complication was the main cause [32,34,37]. Ocular comorbidity was a major cause in China, Kenya, Philippines, and Bangladesh [37,38]. Postoperative sequalae in terms of posterior capsular opacification (PCO) and retinal disorders were major causes in India and Brazil [30 ,36].…”

“…In Latin America, it was unaware of the treatment, cannot afford, fear of operation and other disease contradicting operation [35 ]. In China and Myanmar, the most common barriers reported were cost and fear of operation [38,44]. In Sri Lanka, it was lack of desire to improve vision, fear of surgery and lack of awareness [45].…”

The Need for a Revised Approach to Epidemiological Monitoring of the Prevalence of Visual Impairment

“…At the most straightforward level, the results show us that blindness remains a major problem in Eritrea, and that diseases such as cataract and glaucoma which require ophthalmic care are an important cause of blindness, as in several other surveys from Africa and elsewhere in the world. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] While more than half of severe visual loss or blindness was attributed to cataract, only about 1% was attributed to surgical complications. However, in reading further (as noted by the authors), we find that blindness due to complications of cataract surgery must be one of the leading causes of blindness in single eyes, because 182 eyes (39.2% of those operated) present with visual acuity worse than 6/60.…”