Jakarta, IO – No fewer than 2.2 billion people suffer from visual impairment worldwide. 90% of these are inhabitants of low-income countries. 50% of this complaint is actually preventable and/or treatable. Visual impairment lowers productivity and causes an annual loss of USD 411 billion worldwide. Ocular health is so important that World Sight Day is commemorated on the second Thursday of each October (that’s 13 October this year). The World Sight Day 2022 theme is “Love Your Eyes”, while we commemorate it in Indonesia with the theme of “Healthy Eyes Are Ours” this year.
The Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) discovers that 8 million suffer from visual impairment worldwide: 1.6 million of these suffer from total blindness, while 6.4 million suffer from medium and severe visual impairment (MSVI). “More of 80% of people suffering from visual impairment in Indonesia are actually treatable. It seems to be an advantage, as it means that only 20% of visual impairment cases are hopeless cases. However, the blindness rate in Indonesia is the highest in Southeast Asia. Difficulty of access to eye health service is a major cause of the high number of untreated – or badly treated – visual impairment cases,” reported dr. Yeni Dwi Lestari, Sp.M(K), eye specialist and member of the The Indonesian Ophthalmologists Association (Perhimpunan Dokter Spesialis Mata Indonesia – “Perdami”) Central Management, in the “World Sight Day” press briefing held on Tuesday (04/10/2022).
The RAAB survey, performed on a population of sufferers of both genders aged 50 years or older in 2014- 2016, shows that the average prevalence of blindness in 15 provinces in Indonesia us 3%, with blindness caused by cataracts at 1.9%. Other causes of visual impairment are: refraction abnormality, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP), and low vision. Our cataract sufferers are generally 15 years younger than those in advanced countries. On the other hand, the increase in cataract incidence is said to be related to increased life expectancy. We are not sure what to make of this.