Prevention of Blindness
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- Eye-operation on a baby: Peru 2002. © CBM / Argum / Einberger
There are approximately 37 million blind people in the world, most of whom live in the poorest countries. Over two thirds of cases could have been prevented or are treatable. CBM aims to eliminate the unnecessary cases of blindness by preventing and treating the main diseases which cause blindness.
CBM provides treatment
The major causes of avoidable blindness in the developing countries are cataract, refractive errors, glaucoma, trachoma, vitamin A deficiency, diabetic retinopathy and onchocerciasis. To provide the cost-efficient treatments for these eye diseases and to improve the surgical facilities, CBM supports and sponsors
Sponsorship of surgeries and training
Due to CBM's efforts hundreds of thousands of patients undergo eye surgery each year and thousands of eye care workers are trained with the objective to further reduce the cases of avoidable blindness.
CBM provides treatment
The major causes of avoidable blindness in the developing countries are cataract, refractive errors, glaucoma, trachoma, vitamin A deficiency, diabetic retinopathy and onchocerciasis. To provide the cost-efficient treatments for these eye diseases and to improve the surgical facilities, CBM supports and sponsors
- eye care services and hospitals
- training for eye specialists and ophthalmic nurses
- eye care programmes and programmes for blindness prevention
- the production and distribution of eye medicine
Sponsorship of surgeries and training
Due to CBM's efforts hundreds of thousands of patients undergo eye surgery each year and thousands of eye care workers are trained with the objective to further reduce the cases of avoidable blindness.
In Figures
In 2006,
- 638,943 (2005: 604,990) cataract operations were conducted
- 8,884,819 (3,355,400) onchocerciasis patients received medical treatment
- 224,811 (810,730) trachoma patients were treated
- 984,625 (833,334) Vitamin A capsules were distributed
