Sri Lanka : IRIS Blindness Prevention

BLINDNESS PREVENTION - THE CURRENT SITUATION IN SRI LANKA

The prevalence of blindness in Sri Lanka is 0.427%, and the commonest cause is maturity onset cataract. Slightly over 54,000 people have vision less than 3/60 (social blindness). However, if the cut-off point is taken as 6/60 (economic blindness) the number of those needing surgery rises to 135,000.

Since both eyes need surgery, the number of cataract surgical procedures required amounts to 135,000 x 2 = 270,000. Adding the number of operations needed for unilateral cataracts (48,000) means a total of 318,000 surgical procedures are required.

Twenty years of civil war destroyed a high percentage of the health infrastructures that previously existed in the Tamil-controlled north and east of the country. Whilst eye clinics have been established in Jaffna, Trincomalee, Vavunyia and Batticaloa, travel costs prohibit large numbers of the population, particularly the poor, from accessing treatment.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH - NATIONAL EYE CARE PLAN

In October 2004, the Ministry of Health staged a national workshop to determine revisions to its national plan for eye care. Priorities recommended for inclusion in a new national action plan can be divided into three categories:

• Infrastructure & Technology - strengthening, rehabilitation, development in priority areas.
• Disease Control - targeting as priorities cataract, refractive error and low vision services and the causes of childhood blindness.
• Human Resource Development - ophthalmologists, mid-level workers, ophthalmic technicians, primary health care workers.