title: [Change to "prevention of the avoidable blindness and visual impairment" from "prevention of blindness"].
abstract: The formulation on the eye health by WHO had an obvious change in recent years. Before 2006, WHO and WHA solutions clearly put forward the prevention of blindness. After 2006, WHO and WHA solutions on the eye health emphasized the elimination of the avoidable blindness and visual impairment. This change extends the scope of eye health, reflects the important progress on the global eye health, and also reflects the social progress and the increase to the need on eye health by the public. This change conforms to the actual situation in China. It is necessary to adopt elimination of the avoidable blindness and visual impairment as the priorities in eye health in making the 13th national plan of blindness prevention. This change is not merely a matter of wording, but also a great change in the working content in eye health. The change demonstrates the deep development on the eye health, and may benefit more people and promote the further development of eye health and ophthalmology in China.
authors: Department of Ophthalmology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China; Email: zhjialiang@163.com.
authors: Jialiang
authors: J
authors: Zhao
mesh_terms: D001766:Blindness / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002681:China; D060740:Disease Eradication; D006801:Humans; D009885:Ophthalmology; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control; D014944:World Health Organization