Bangladesh: Fresh evidence on Blindness and Visual Impairment

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National Eye Centre Bangladesh has published fresh data on blindness and visual impairment in Bangladesh as: Prevalence on blindness and its determinants in Bangladesh adult population: results from national cross-sectional survey. The survey was carried out in the adult population aged 40 and older. The result shows that the overall age and sex adjusted prevalence of blindness as 1.0% in this age group. The rate of blindness was higher in females and the rural population. The details of the published data can be access in

http://bmjopen.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmjopen-2021-052247

This evidence is crucial as Bangladesh has endorsed WHO-World Report on Vision and committed to implement it in national eye health policy and plan in 2020. Bangladesh has also played important role and co-sponsored the WHA resolution on Integrated People Centred Eye Care in 2020, incorporating eye health indicators Effective Coverage of Cataract Surgery (eCSC) and effective Coverage of Refractive Error (eREC) as a part of tracer indicator of UHC. Bangladesh also co-sponsored the UN resolution “Vision for Everyone by 2030” eye health is important in accelerating SDG achievements”. Now, the country has valid evidence to set the baseline to set the target for 2030 on eye health targets.

We congratulate all involved in generating this evidence for eye health services of Bangladesh. We wish IPEC implementation process will be further accelerated, and eye care services of Bangladesh will be elevated with access to all the needy population.

Image on top: Hridoy, a 13 year-old boy who likes to read using the Braille method/ Syed Sajidul Islam