A woman at school screening, Nkhwangwa Primary School in Nsomo area, Malawi © Georgina Cranston / Sightsavers

Preventing Blindness

Millions of people are still going needlessly blind in the developing world from preventable diseases such as river blindness and trachoma, and in children, Vitamin A deficiency. Poverty, lack of services and resources, as well as a dire shortage of medical staff across sub-Saharan Africa are the main reasons why people continue to go blind from preventable causes.

Preventing river blindness

Our partners train community volunteers to oversee and distribute the drug Mectizan® which must be taken over 20 years in order to prevent river blindness. Mectizan® is donated by the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. which has promised to continue to provide the drug free of charge for as long as it is needed.

Tackling trachoma

Communities are taught the importance of hygiene and face washing to prevent the spread of trachoma. Ointment is provided to treat people who already have the infection, and finally if it's progressed to the later state of trichiasis we perform surgery, which can be done at a local health clinic or even in the home, meaning that people do not have to travel huge distances to seek treatment.

Stopping childhood blindness

It's important to ensure that children with eye conditions are identified and treated at the earliest opportunity. As well as distributing Mectizan® to children, we work with governments to facilitate Vitamin A distribution programmes and also promote health education, such as teaching mothers about the importance of keeping children's faces clean to prevent the spread of trachoma.

Health care in the community

One of the key ways of preventing blindness is by integrating eye care into existing primary health care provision, which focuses on bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work. We provide training in eye health to community health workers so they can identify and treat people with common eye conditions during home visits and refer them on for treatment if necessary - these measures can prevent more complex eye problems occurring.

Achievements

 

Working with our partners in 2010, we helped to:

• Treat over 23 million people for river blindness
• Perform over 270,000 sight restoring cataract operations
• Treat over a million people with antibiotics for trachoma