Vietnam is striving to reduce blindness to 0.3 percent by 2020 in aneffort to complete its commitment to Vision 2020 – a global initiativefor the elimination of avoidable blindness.

"We have to control the main causes of blindness like cataracts,refractive error and glaucoma by providing surgery for at least 170,000to 300,000 cataract cases each year and eliminating trachoma by 2013,"said Director of the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology (VNIO)Do Nhu Hon at the National Conference on Blindness Prevention 2010 onDec. 11.

The VNIO said that Vietnam has around 370,000blind people among nearly 2 million visually impaired people, about 0.59percent of the population, and that around 700,000 cataract cases and80,000 entropion cases across the country needed surgery as soon aspossible.

"Our survey said that more than 30 percent ofblind people in Vietnam do not realise that their illness can be treatedand around one-third of the blind cannot afford treatment," stressedHon.

Authorities will focus activities on establishing aneye care network for children in all key cities and regions of thecountry along with further strengthening medical facilities andtechniques as well as a communication programme to raise awareness incommunities on eye care and eye disease prevention, according to Hon.

A rapid increase in the refractive error rate to 15 percent of thepopulation in rural areas and 40 percent in urban areas along with alack of financial resources and inadequate public knowledge arechallenges for the ophthalmology sector in Vietnam.

Healthsector statistics show that more than 130,000 cataract surgeries wereperformed during the 2009-10 period, of which 30,000 were carried out byprivate medical clinics. Vietnam has around 14.5 optometrists per 1million people and, at the district level, there are only 202 for 692districts nationwide./.