Vietnam Targets to Lower Blindness Rate to Under 0.3% in 2020

Vietnam, which reported high rate of blindness in the region at 0.47% in 2007, is trying to reduce the rate to below 0.4% in 2012 and below 0.3% in 2020, said a three-day national conference on blindness prevention opened in Hanoi August 1.

To realize the goals, Vietnam will take a number of measures to control blindness-caused preventive diseases such as cataract, trachoma, xerophthalmia and refractive defects.

From now until 2012, the country will conduct between 170,000 to 200,000 cataract surgeries each year and eliminate xerophthalmia.

Currently, Vietnam reports about 370,640 blind people and 1.58 million people with poor vision, including 572,757 men and 1,007,019 women. It also identifies an additional 170,000 people suffering from cataract-related eye diseases annually.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Central Ophthalmology Hospital, cataract is still the leading cause of blindness in Vietnam and just 51% of the surveyed Vietnamese knew their eyesight situation and nearly 30% of them never took eye check-ups.