Globally, 90 % of the world's blind people live in developing countries. These countries not only bear the burden of treatment and rehabilitation, but also experience decreased productivity and reduced opportunities for development.

As people with severe visual impairments have less opportunities for gainful employment, they are more at risk of unemployment and poverty. The loss of visual orientation limits mobility and can often lead to social isolation.

Visual impairment can create obstacles to a child's development, if they are not provided special assistance and intervention. A young child with visual disabilities has little reason to explore interesting objects in the environment and may thus miss opportunities to experience things and to learn.

• Except for the most developed countries, cataract remains the leading cause of visual impairment in all regions of the world.
• Other major causes are glaucoma, retinal diseases, trachoma and corneal scar.
• Further eye conditions in children causing blindness are vitamin A deficiency, cataract and retinopathy of prematurity.
• Trachoma, Onchocerciasis and Vitamin A deficiency (childhood blindness) are considered indicators of poverty, as they affect the poorest of the poor. Their distribution is largely determined by environmental factors, like quality of water, sanitation and nutrition, and by the availability of health care and basic medicines.

WHO Primary Healthcare Report

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:Community Eye Health Update November 2008|new)$

Only about half of childhood blindness, but up to 80 % of all blindness is avoidable: 20 % preventable and 60 % treatable - mostly at rather low costs. Programmes fighting blindness therefore concentrate on

• improvement of living conditions to reduce the distribution of diseases causing visual impairment
• direct medical care and disease control to prevent and treat the major causes of blindness
• training of ophthalmologists and other eye care personnel to provide eye care
• improvement of infrastructure and technology to make eye care more available and accessible

Information on clinical conditions related to low vision and blindness:
Cataract
Trachoma
Childhood Blindness
River Blindness
Glaucoma

Information on CBM's programmes for people with visual loss:
Prevention of Blindness
Low Vision Care
Education and Rehabilitation