[Prevention of blindness is still an arduous task and embarks on a long road in China]

The outcomes from China Nine-Province Survey shows that the prevention of blindness in China have got some achievements, however, the status of blindness and moderate and severe visual impairment is still serious. The prevalence of blindness and moderate and severe visual impairment in some remote areas is higher than the national average level. The major cause of blindness and visual impairment is cataract,however, retinal diseases are found to be the second major cause, which reflects both characteristics of blindness in the developed and developing countries. The prevalence of blindness and moderate and severe visual impairment are 1.93% and 5.31% respectively, however, the cataract surgery coverage rate is only 35.7%. These figures shows that prevention of blindness is still an arduous task and embark on a long road in China. The priority for prevention of blindness should be cataract-related blindness and visual impairment at present. Meanwhile, we should begin to conduct the prevention of the retinal diseases.