Experts: Yemen made big progress towards initiative "2020 vision"

SANA'A, Aug. 01
(Saba) - International experts have affirmed that Yemen has made big progress
towards achieving
the global initiative "2020 vision" comparing with other countries' achievements in
this field.
The statements have been made in a three-day national workshop being held in Amran
governorate and was organized by the National Program to Combat Blindness in
participation
with the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) to set a five-year
plan for combating blindness in the governorate.
In the workshop attended by 50 academicians and consultants in the area of eye
care, the IAPB's Expert Babar Qureshi noted that the national program has exerted
good efforts
during the past five years whether via the surgery camps or the field surveys on
blindness reasons and medicating them.
The IAPB has put Yemen within the countries having a priority to receive the
international support for prevention of blindness, Qureshi confirmed.
Undersecretary of Public Health and Population Ministry Majed al-Jonaid pointed out
that the results of surveys conducted last months in Amran and Lahj governorate
have
showed that the blindness ratio amounted from 7 to 9 percent of the total population
within the age class of over 50 years.
Al-Jonaid praised efforts of the local Civil Society Organizations, and the
international organizations working in Yemen through the camps of eye medical care,
which are
organized from time to time in all governorates of the country.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Acting Country Representative in Yemen Dr.
Osama Mere voiced the WHO's readiness to present the technical and financial
support to the
national program, affirming the encouragement of his organization for integrating
the national program with the initial medical care programs.
Director of the National Program to Combat Blindness Dr. Tawfiq al-Khateb reviewed
the program's efforts for reducing the blindness in Yemen.
Earlier studies revealed that Trachoma disease, which is one of the key reasons for
blindness in the world, is existed with high rates in Jawf and Marib governorate,
Dr.
al-Khateb said.
He called for gathering the official and public efforts for surveying every
governorate in the country to know the problem's volume and finding solutions to
reduce the blindness
ratio in Yemen.
The "Vision 2020: Right to Sight" global initiative to eliminate preventable
blindness throughout the world by the year 2020.
Involved in the coordination of this initiative, the World Health Organization and
the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, the initiative also
includes
membership in several international bodies including non-governmental organizations,
professional associations and eye care institutions and corporations.
BA/AF