French-speaking countries in West Africa joined forces to eliminate trachoma, the world’s leading cause of infectious blindness, under a new initiative spearheaded by The Task Force’s International Trachoma Initiative (ITI). Representatives discussed funding, logistics, and supply-chain management issues around the mass drug administration of antibiotic for eliminating trachoma as a public health problem. (more…)
This day marks World Sight Day, and organizations from all corners of the optical industry around the world gather to make their voices count. World Sight Day (WSD) is an annual day of global awareness on blindness and vision impairment co-ordinated by IAPB under the VISION 2020 Global Initiative.
Based on a new global data report published by IAPB Vision Atlas, 253 million people are visually impaired while 89% of these people live in low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, localised and restricted environment in marginalized communities, such as ill-planned infrastructure and technological barriers, confers eye health challenges to children. (more…)
World Sight Day (WSD), held every second Thursday of October, is an annual day of awareness focusing global attention on blindness and vision impairment. Running in its fifth year of the WHO Global Action Plan, The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) encourages participants to continue with its rolling theme on Universal Eye Health, WHO’s Global Action Plan of 2014-19. The plan supports the provision of effective and accessible eye care services for effectively controlling visual impairment including blindness. (more…)
Recent strides toward understanding dry eye are leading to better and longer-lasting therapies for the millions of people in the U.S. who are affected by the condition.
Current therapies for dry eye provide symptomatic relief: steroids control inflammation, antibiotics counter infection, and artificial tears replenish moisture. But such approaches give only short-term relief for some people and require frequent reapplication. They also fail to address the underlying causes of dry eye. (more…)
Four years ago, Essilor, the market leader in ophthalmic optics with the mission to improve lives by improving sight, created dedicated teams to reach the 2.5 billion people across the globe who don’t have access to the vision correction they need. Since then, Essilor has launched and scaled-up new inclusive business models and deployed many non-profit initiatives to improve access to vision care in developing (and developed) nations. (more…)
It’s a well-known fact that smoking increases risks for certain eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration (AMD), cataracts, and vision loss. Since 2015, promotional campaigns appear across the U.S. to warn smokers of the health risks of tobacco use and to encourage them to quit. Studies show that smokers are twice as likely to develop macular degeneration compared with a nonsmoker, while they are two to three times more likely to develop cataracts compared with a nonsmoker. (more…)
When it comes to our health, we often visit our doctor or nurse regularly to make sure our bodies are healthy. But what about our eyes? They’re not always top of mind, but they’re just as important.
During Healthy Vision Month, held each May, the National Eye Institute (NEI) reminds you to make your eye health a priority and encourages you to take important steps to protect your sight. (more…)
For many it’s a simple choice – if you have problems with your eyesight, see an optometrist. As we get older, most of us will probably need glasses, particularly for those that spent most of the working life hunched over a computer all day long. But this once seemingly straightforward profession of optometry is changing, rapidly. And these changes which are coming to the field of optometry may very well signal things to come in other areas of health service as well. (more…)
Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) causes babies to needlessly lose their vision. It is one of the leading causes of blindness in premature infants in India.
INDIA, (IAPB), April 27, 2017 — The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and the Public Health Foundation of India are launching a Retinopathy of Prematurity Initiative in the western state of Maharashtra. The project will train staff to screen for ROP, provide support services, and conduct research to tackle the disease.
India has the largest number of preterm births in the world. “Our goal is to help support sustainable and scalable services for the detection and prevention of severe retinopathy of prematurity which are integrated into the Government of India’s health care system”, explained Dr. Astrid Bonfield, Chief Executive at the Trust. (more…)
- Eyezone Institute faculty members, Dr. Nezar Damati, Mr. Moayad Al-Deek, and Ms. Enas Musa, attended the two-day intensive EyeTeach© workshop, an initiative conducted by Brien Holden Vision Institute Academy,…