Rainald Duerksen, MD Chairman VISION 2020 Latin America

1. Rainald Duerksen, MD Chairman VISION 2020 Latin America September, 2006

2. ADVOCACY VISION 2020 Latin America When it was formally established in Buenos Aires in 2001 not a single country (19 in total including the Spanish speaking ones in the Caribbean with the exception of Puerto Rico) in the region had signed the global declaration of support, there was not a single country with a National Prevention of Blindness Committee/VISION 2020 that included Government participation. As of September 2006: 1) National PBL/VISION 2020 Committees: 13 2) Signed Global Declaration: 15 3) Established a National Plan: 10 4) Have attended VISION 2020 Workshops: 19

3. ADVOCACY - An average of 8 CEH courses take place throughout the region every year - Established it’s own website in the three languages of the region (English, Portuguese and Spanish): www.v2020la.org

4. ADVOCACY - Established it’s own quarterly bulletin in June 2005, also in three languages www.v2020la.org

5. ADVOCACY Has it’s own dedicated PBL meeting not associated to any other major ophthalmology event, the first one in Buenos Aires in 2002 and the next one to take place in Barranquilla in October 2006

6. ADVOCACY Dr. Duerksen, Regional IAPB Chair participated as an official member of the Paraguayan Delegation to the WHA of May 2006 in Geneva Makes available via it’s web site, the VISION 2020 Tool kit. Almost every single country now has at least one VISION 2020 “contact” person. Has promoted various World Sight Day activities and this year has translated and made available the related Posters in English and Portuguese.

7. ADVOCACY Titles of the three chapters accepted in “The Americas Lens” book to be published late September 2006 by ALACSSA THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CATARACT AND BLINDNESS Introduction Cataracts are the end result of irreversible changes in the transparency of the eye lens that left unchecked, cause impaired vision and blindness. This process can occur in a matter of months, but typically takes several years and is most related to the age of the individual. CATARACT: FIRST CAUSE OF AVOIDABLE BLINDNESS WORLDWIDE Introduction The number of blind persons in the world grew rapidly between 1972 and 1990 from an estimated 10-15 million to 38 million in 1990,1 although according to Resnikoff et al this figure had not significantly changed for the period from 1990 to 2002. VISION 2020: The Right to Sight Introduction In the 1990s, many ophthalmologists recognized that in developing countries, ophthalmic diseases and problems were continuing to take a devastating toll on individuals in terms of blindness, impaired vision, and the associated sequelae, which includes economic hardship.

8. ADVOCACY Article accepted in Ocular Surgery News for October 2006 Cataract surgical rates falling short in Latin America Higher productivity and better allocation of resources are needed to meet the goal of VISION 2020 to eradicate avoidable blindness in the developing world, according to the organization’s co-chair and the coordinator for the region. by Van C. Lansingh, MD, PhD and Rainald Duerksen, MD special to ocular surgery news Cataract surgical rates (CSR) are currently below those necessary to clear surgical backlogs in all Latin American countries in order to meet VISION 2020 goals, which should be in the order of 3.000 per million. The aging of the global population has exacerbated the prevalence of visual impairment, and in response, the World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness joined forces in 1999 to launch VISION 2020: the Right to Sight initiative.

9. HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT Promotes with the help of NGOs (especially CBM) various courses and provides technical expertise in collaboration with PAHO through its technical sub-committees: Cataract, Diabetic Retinopathy, Monitoring and Evaluation, Childhood Blindness/ROP, Low Vision, Refractive Errors, Advocacy and resource Mobilization. Each sub-committee also has created a country by country situational analysis and plan. In Brazil, helped develop a CEH curriculum for residencies currently being trialed in several programmes. Makes available (thanks to the generous support of the Ptolemy Project of the University of Toronto) updated articles of peer reviewed journal in our web site. Various key documents, publications and educational photographs are made available through the web site

10. HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT Through the generous donations of ICEH, ORBIS International and Vision Paraguay, this month we have made available the first pilot edition of the Journal of Community Eye Health in Spanish with the second volume due out in December 2006. Which is also available in the web site. Brazilian Doctors have participated as faculty in CEH courses in Africa and Hill commence training ophthalmologists in this country with a special government permit)

11. MONITORING AND EVALUATION - In collaboration with CBM and PAHO, helped conduct RACSS studies providing valuable epidemiology information in: Paraguay, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Peru and Colombia. Many have been or are in the process of being published in peer reviewed journals. - Provides WHO regular updates in VISION 2020 Implementation Data

12. MONITORING AND EVALUATION - In Collaboration with ORBIS commenced and regularly updates an ambitious country by country indicators which include economic data, various health indicators, most of the VISION 2020 related indicators, etc. made available through it’s web site.