Throughout the world, one person goes blind every 5 seconds, and one child goes blind every 60 seconds. Currently, there are 45 million blind people and 180 million people who have severe vision impairment. 80% of these 180 million people can receive treatment and prevent blindness. However, due to impoverished conditions in developing countries, they are unable to receive basic, much less specialized, medical care.
Governments and various non-government organizations are actively trying to provide medical services for these patients. Not surprisingly, there are massive shortages of medical personnel and services needed to treat the hundreds of millions of patients globally. The single biggest cause of blindness is cataracts, which accounts for 47% of blindness throughout the world. The fact is that cataracts can be treated through relatively simple surgery to prevent blindness. Cataract surgery is acknowledged by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the most cost-effective and successful treatment method.
For its part, Vision Care Service is dedicated to filling the critically urgent need for cataract surgeries and treatment to prevent blindness for patients in developing countries throughout the world. Vision Care’s VCEC is the cornerstone program for the organization’s international effort to bring medical care to eye patients in the remote areas.
