Materia Medica Malaysiana

Over 80% of blindness preventable, says group

SUBANG: About 80% of 500,000 Malaysians who are visually impaired could have avoided being inflicted with the handicap.

Unfortunately, said Malaysian Association of the Blind president Datuk Dr Ismail Mohd Salleh, due to lack of awareness and preventive measures, visual impairment was becoming a serious problem.

“Blindness has profound personal and socio-economic consequences. The loss in productivity, and the cost of rehabilitation and education of the blind burden the economy.

“The key in avoiding the problem is to create awareness,” he said at the launch of the Orbis flying hospital at the Terminal 3 tarmac here yesterday.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said about 90% of the world’s blindness was avoidable, preventable and treatable with available interventions.


“According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), every five seconds one person in the world is going blind and a child goes blind every minute,” Dr Abdul Latiff said, in a speech at the launching, read out by the ministry's deputy director of medical development, Dr Mohd Raili Haji Suhaili.

“An estimated 180 million people worldwide are visually disabled and 40 million to 50 million of them are blind,” said Dr Abdul Latiff.

WHO estimated that by the year 2020, the number of blind people in the world would double, unless something was done to stop the trend.

“Blindness knows no boundaries, borders or barriers. It cuts across continents, countries and cultures,” he said.

He commended Orbis for flying around the world and saving people’s sight and minimising incidents of blindness by offering hands-on training for eye care professionals.

The flying hospital’s doctors screen patients with difficult eye problems, referred to them by hospitals and clinics. Some cases are surgically corrected.