St John’s Antigua – Dec. 18, 2014 : Vision 2020 “the right to sight” (the global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness) was the focus of a two day meeting, held in St. Lucia last week.
It brought together, health officials from 14 CARICOM (Caribbean Community) member states as well as international organizations from Latin America, the United States and the United Kingdom, to discussed matters related to eye health including treatment and management of: Cataract, Glaucoma, Diabetic Retinopathy, Refractive Errors and Childhood blindness.
The 2-day meeting , held at the Bay Gardens Hotel was declared open by Hon. Alvina Reynolds, St. Lucia’s Minister of Health, who lauded steps being taken to: end preventable blindness; to help persons who are blind regain their sight, and equip persons whose sight cannot be restored, with the skills to live productive lives.
“We look at the history of the CCB and want to applaud the partners who started many years ago in terms of bringing the cause of visually impaired persons in the Caribbean to the fore and to rally the nongovernmental organizations. I really want to commend those champions, even at the national level such as the St Lucia Blind Welfare association,” the Health Minister said. The conference noted that although significant progress has been made in reporting on all five of the leading causes of blindness in the Caribbean , the cataract surgical rate is still below the minimum required to eliminate blindness from the condition.
It was also noted that although glaucoma surgery is the preferred method of preventing blindness from the disease,the Caribbean lags far behind as North America; Europe and sections of the developing World are using surgery to prevent blindness from the condition. Increased availability of Glaucoma surgeries will reduce the need for glaucoma patients to have to use eye drops for the rest of their lives.
Delegates recognized that more persons need to get affordable access to laser treatment for Diabetic Retinopathy (DR), given the very high prevalence of diabetes, which is the main risk for DR.
The meeting also applauded the work of CCB-Eye Care Caribbean in increasing access to affordable prescription glasses and called for the integration of programmes for the treatment of Retinopathy Of Prematurity (a leading cause of blindness in children) to be included in neonatal programmes across the Caribbean.
Coordinated by the Caribbean Council for the Blind (CCB-Eye Care Caribbean), the conference, now in its fourteenth year, brought together regional health representatives including the Pan American Health Organization; as well as several International non-governmental organizations such as: The International Agency For The Prevention Of Blindness (IAPB) Orbis International, SightSavers and Help Age International.
Vision 2020 the right to sight, is a global initiative launched by theWorld Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020 .
Contact: Arvel Grant, ( C.SW, B.Sc-SW (Hons) DPA, MPH)
Chief Executive Officer,
CCB-Eye Care Caribbean
PURPOSE
“Preventing blindness and visual impairment; while restoring sight and creating opportunities for persons whose sight cannot be restored”.
Lower All Saints Road – P.O. Box 1517 – Antigua, West Indies
Tel: 1-(268)-462-4111/462-6369/562-2216
Fax: (268)-462-6371