Global Vision Database Project Funded For 5 years

The Vision Loss Expert Group’s Global Vision Database project has secured funding for a further 5 years. Recent generous funding by Brien Holden Vision Institute, Fondation Théa, The Fred Hollows Foundation, Heidelberg University, Sightsavers, and Lions Clubs International Foundation has meant the group can continue its activities to maintain the Global Vision Database and provide global updates on prevalence of vision loss.

Professor Rupert Bourne, coordinator for the project said “I am delighted to see the support from eye care organisations for the group’s work. The renewed funding will allow us to continue providing robust and reliable data on the global prevalence and causes of blindness and vision impairment”.

The group’s immediate plans are for a release of new estimates of vision loss prevalence by cause in 2020. The project will also focus on risk factors for vision loss and modelling of its impact and the tracking of emerging causes such as myopic macular degeneration.

Peter Holland, IAPB’s CEO, noted “I am delighted that the Vision Loss Expert Group have secured extended funding, including from IAPB member organisations. The group’s data is central to the IAPB Vision Atlas, and by extension, to our understanding of the global prevalence and causes of vision loss. Together, we provide an effective tool to advocate for eye health worldwide”.

The Vision Loss Expert Group, an international collaboration of more than 100 ophthalmologists and optometrists with an interest in ophthalmic epidemiology, published the global, regional and country estimates for vision loss by cause for 2010 and then for 2015 with a forecast to 2020 in The Lancet Global Health and the British Journal of Ophthalmology. A collaboration with IAPB meant that these data became available to any internet user by accessing the maps of the Vision Atlas (atlas.iapb.org). Now over a decade old, the group continues to work closely with The Global Burden of Disease Study team as the reference group for vision loss.

For further information please contact the group at [email protected]

Photo credit: “Saving Sight, Empowering Lives”, by Miran Shah, North Waziristan. The photo is from #MakeVisionCount WSD Photo competition (2017).