Essay On Blindness In China

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Introduction It is estimated by World Health Organization (WHO) that there were about 39 million blind people in 2010. 90% of the blind people live in developing countries and over 80% of the blindness is treatable or avoidable. China, a country of a total population over 1.3 billion, is estimated to have 5 million blind people. This number of blind people represents for 18% of the blindness in world and is the largest amount of blind people in a single country. The leading cause of blindness in China is cataract which prefers inflexibility and clouding of lens in the eyes mainly associated with aging. Blindness caused by cataract accounts for approximately 50% of China's blind or 2.5 million people. According to the Chinese Ministry of Health, it is estimated about 400,000 people would become totally blind each year because of cataracts alone. The number of people who are blind from cataract will be doubled and reaching 5 million by 2020 if the current trend continues. Besides as a public health and social problem in China, blindness also has negative impact on the …show more content…

The elderly population over 60 years is expected to grow by 90% and this population group would reach 240 million by 2020. 60% of population in China or around 800 million people live in rural area where economic is underdeveloped. About 45% of the 2,400 county hospitals in the rural area are not able to perform the cataract surgery. They either do not have a trained and qualified cataract surgeon, or appropriate equipment and supplies for the procedure. This makes the cataract surgical coverage in China is far behind the estimated needs by 80%. The patients who need the procedure is estimated to exceed 2 million. Majority of the patients who need the surgery live in the rural areas. Most of them may even be unaware of the cataract disease and the need of the

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