Humanitarian
Development of retinoblastoma services in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe recognised the need for a paediatric ophthalmology service almost 20 years ago. The economic uncertainty in the country made it difficult to secure financial support, so initial funding came through local donors. Equipment – including vision charts, ophthalmoscopes and...
IN FOCUS - Prevention and treatment of blindness worldwide: the story of ‘VISION 2020: The Right to Sight’
The story of blindness and efforts to prevent and treat it cannot be told without going back to the earliest recorded history of blindness. Trachoma was described in ancient Egypt, cataract surgery in India about the fifth century BC and...
IN FOCUS - The achievements and lasting effects of VISION 2020
Blindness is a major public health problem globally. The first estimate of global blindness by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1972 provided a figure of 10 to 15 million, which was considered an underestimate [1]. In 1999, an extraordinary...
IN FOCUS - Beyond 2020: what next for global eye health?
The year 2020 is a pivotal year for global eye health. It marks the conclusion of ‘VISION 2020: The Right to Sight’ which has guided action for the past two decades, and the end of the World Health Organization (WHO)...
IN FOCUS - VISION 2020 LINKS Programme: the contribution of health partnerships to reduction in blindness worldwide
As other articles in this series (IN FOCUS Apr 2020) demonstrate, the year 2020 is highly significant in the eye care field. Naming a global initiative ‘VISION 2020: The Right to Sight’ in 1999 was a daring way to focus...
Diabetic Retinopathy Network laser training programme
The VISION 2020 Diabetic Retinopathy Network (DR-NET) was established in 2014 to tackle the increasing burden of diabetes and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in developing countries [1]. By forming a network of long-term LINK capacity-building partnerships, learning and best practice can...
Capacity building for ophthalmic nursing in Ghana, Botswana and Tanzania
Ophthalmic nurses (ON) have been the backbone of eye health services in Africa since the mid-20th century and remain the largest single cadre of allied ophthalmic personnel in Commonwealth countries in Africa. Numbers are currently estimated at between 3500 and...
Advanced Glaucoma Surgery Course in Africa through the Juba-Bournemouth VISION 2020 LINK
In order to enhance specialist skills, particularly for South Sudan, the Juba-Bournemouth VISION 2020 LINK has been offering week-long intensive ophthalmic specialist training for the last three years, in collaboration with the University of Nairobi, the College of Ophthalmology of...
Building capacity for diabetic retinopathy services in Malawi
Screening for diabetic retinopathy prevents blindness. There is no systematic screening programme for diabetic eye disease in Malawi and people present when they have lost vision and it is too late for treatment. The aim of the VISION 2020 LINK...
Increasing access to eye care through community outreach clinics in Uganda
There has been a VISION 2020 LINK between Mulago Hospital and Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and the Royal Free Hospital, London, since 2010. There have been regular training visits between teams from the eye departments at Mulago and the...
VISION 2020 LINKS: COECSA Fellowship examination goes from strength to strength
Eye health problems and access to diagnosis and treatment is an important issue throughout low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and particularly on the African continent, where quality of life is drastically affected by poor vision, blindness and deteriorating eye health,...
Diabetic retinopathy screening in Belize: a country’s journey towards reducing blindness from DR
The rise of diabetes mellitus (DM) and its complications is a public health concern in the Caribbean. The Caribbean Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) Programme, managed by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and funded by the Queen Elizabeth...
