Eye health in the Western Pacific

In the Western Pacific Region, over 90 million people experience visual impairment, including 10 million that are blind. Blindness can be avoided in eight out of 10 cases with appropriate treatment or early prevention.

Eye health can be promoted through the integration of comprehensive eye-care services into existing health systems. General approaches are evidence-based advocacy, development and implementation of eye health policies and programmes, and multi-stakeholder partnerships to strengthen eye health towards achieving the global target of a 25% reduction in the prevalence of avoidable visual impairment by 2019 (from the 2010 baseline).The WHO Blindness Prevention and Control programme supports Member States to reduce avoidable vision impairment as a public health problem and to secure access to low-vision and rehabilitation services for those in need.