Country Overview
Preventable and avoidable blindness is a major public health problem in Zimbabwe. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 125,000 (1% of the total population) people in Zimbabwe is living with blindness, 62,500 of whom are blind from cataract which gives a backlog of 60,000 cataract surgery operations. This backlog was attributed to a lack of cataract surgical equipment, consumables and inadequate qualified personnel in the rural provinces and high costs of cataract surgeries.
According to available statistics from the Ministry of Health & Child Welfare, eye diseases rank among the top five causes of attendance in out-patient health facilities nationally. The major eye conditions include refractive errors, conjunctivitis, cataract,
trauma and glaucoma. According to the National Health Strategy (2009 to 2013) for Zimbabwe, it is estimated that 80% of blindness is avoidable and treatable. The major causes of avoidable blindness include cataracts, glaucoma, trauma, diabetic retinopathy and refractive errors. The majority of the blind is the older persons (4,7% of the total population- 2012 Census Report) and most cannot afford to access eye health services. In its drive to prevent blindness in communities, Council for the Blind has encountered difficult situations where there are unending shortages of drugs and other eye ointments in the country due to the non-availability of funds to purchase such medical requisites and also issues to do with GMP certification of the companies where these essential medicines are procured.
As our clientele is mainly serviced by extensive travel, there were some disruptions of our schedules of outreach activities because of erratic funding of such activities and also COVID -19 lockdown in the first quarter of 2021.
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