WHO Myanmar

Annual Events

World Sight Day 2009 Commemoration

The commemoration ceremony of World Sight Day 2009 was held at the Ministry of Health in Nay Pyi Taw at 0830 hours on 8 October 2009. The inaugural speech was delivered by H.E. Professor Kyaw Myint, Minister, Ministry of Health. Next, Dr Leonard Ortega, Ag WR, Myanmar delivered an address.

Afterwards, H.E. Professor Kyaw Myint, Minister of Health and Dr. Leonard Ortega, Ag WR viewed the mini-exhibition on World Sight Day.

World Sight Day, on the second Thursday of October, is an annual event focusing on the problem of global blindness; it aims to raise public awareness around the world about the prevention and treatment of loss of vision.

Vision 2020: The Right to Sight  is the global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness, a joint programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of blindness (IAPB), with an international coalition of public, private, philanthropic, commercial and academic organizations, who seek to do more through collaboration than any one could do alone.

Prevention and treatment of vision loss are among the most cost effective and successful health interventions. These interventions include : cataract surgery to cure eye diseases related to ageing; prevention of trachoma; immunization against measles; provision of vitamin A supplements for the prevention of childhood blindness; and provision of eye glasses. The causes of avoidable blindness are frequently associated with lack of access to quality eye care service.

WHO has been dealing with causes of blindness and care for the blind since the early years of the Organization. Trachoma was one of the health problems requiring international control efforts in the aftermath of the Second World War. Further, the WHO prevention of blindness programmes was established in 1978 .

The “Vision 2020 :  The Right to Sight” is a global initiative, launched on 18 February 1999, which aims to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020. Vision 2020 programmes have been adopted in more than 40 countries.

Key strategies of vision 2020 are : increasing awareness of the major public health issue; mobilizing additional resources, controlling major causes of avoidable blindness ; training ophthalmologists and other personnel in eye care ; and providing technology and infrastructure. 

In the prevention of blindness field, interest in understanding differences between men and women generally began with a systematic review and meta analysis of population based surveys conducted between 1980 and 2000. This was the first attempt to explore sex and gender issues in eye health and blindness programme.

Overall, women were 1.43 times more likely to be blind than men. Extrapolating these findings to the global population suggests that women account for almost two thirds (64%) of all cases of blindness.

The disparity in blindness between men and women can be grouped into three distinct, but overlapping areas :

     Globally, women tend to live longer than men-Since vision loss is associated with ageing there are more women with vision loss than men

     Women have a higher risk of acquiring diseases that can lead to blindness—Biologically, women have a slightly higher risk of developing cataract compared to men. Women  also have a higher risk of developing trichiasis, a consequence of trachoma infection

     Finally, and  most importantly, in the least developed countries of the world, women utilize eye care services less frequently than men

The theme of World Sight Day 2009 – gender – eye health equal access to care – recognizes that :

     Two-thirds of blind people worldwide are women and girls

     In many countries, men’s access to eye care is twice that of women

     VISION 2020 programmes employ strategies which effectively address this strategy

According to the World Sight Day 2009 Report on gender and blindness, “achieving gender equity, whether by addressing trachoma, cataract, glaucoma, refractive errors or other causes of vision loss will require a concerted effort by all involved in prevention of blindness”

The Report highlights examples of successful programmes and dedicated personnel who are keen to make a difference. While a successful approach adopted in one setting may not be transferable to a different context, there are common approaches that are suitable for scaling up.  These include :

     Reaching out to women and girls in the community, whether through local primary health workers, community leaders or female peers

     Providing appropriate transport options, since women often have restricted ability to travel, especially unaccompanied

     Counseling, which “empowers families to make decisions” and ensures that the needs of women and girls are not neglected for cultural and economic reasons

Adopting approaches to improve the use of services by women and girls will not only reduce gender inequity in blindness and vision loss—it will have a significant benefit to the family, to the community and to society at large.

Eye care, needs to be viewed comprehensively and as a priority. WHO hopes that the World Sight Day will provide opportunities for the public, health professionals, private and non-profit sectors  to become more aware and more committed to ensuring the right to sight for all and to invest in global blindness prevention.