Cataract blindness in Africa

Of the estimated 17 million blind from cataract in the world, two to three million live in Africa, where manpower and material resources are inadequate to meet the increasing backlog of treatable blindness. The training of primary health care workers to screen rural Africans for cataract, and of eye auxiliaries and general doctors to select patients and perform surgery, is essential. Motivation for surgery will increase if eye services are made more accessible and reliable. This requires more motivated trained staff and appropriately equipped static eye facilities.