Global Ophthalmic Health Initiatives in Ebola and Emerging Infectious Disease Outbreaks: Implications for Vision Health Systems, Program Implementation, and Disease Surveillance.

Abstract

Globally, the need for eye health services continues to grow and has been deemed a significant public health concern requiring immediate action.1 In 2019, an estimated 2.2 billion people worldwide had vision impairment, and at least 1 billion people had preventable or untreated causes of vision loss.2 The prevalence of visual disability is predicted to increase with the continued growth of populations and aging. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified global eye health as a priority and previously launched VISION 2020: The Right to Sight initiative in 1999 to eliminate avoidable blindness globally by 2020.3 Although progress was made, not all of the goals for VISION 2020 were met.