The impact of Vision 2020 on global blindness.
BACKGROUND
Recent data suggest that there are 37 million blind people and 124 million with low vision, excluding those with uncorrected refractive errors. The main causes of global blindness are cataract, glaucoma, corneal scarring (from a variety of causes), age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy.


CONCLUSIONS
It would appear that the global Vision 2020 initiative is having an impact to reduce avoidable blindness particularly from ocular infections, but more needs to be done to address cataract, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy.
Foster
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International Centre for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. allenfoster@compuserve.com
Resnikoff
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D001766:Blindness / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014943:Global Health; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000639:trends; D015397:Program Evaluation