Why the World Needs CSFII

Goal 1 -- Controlling and Eliminating the Major Causes of Avoidable Blindness

Cataract

The world's rapidly aging population will make cataract blindness a more formidable foe than ever. Increased surgical capacity and trained personnel are urgently needed to prevent millions from losing their sight to cataract.

The SightFirst Action Plan:

• To counter the expected crush of cataract cases in the next 15 years, SightFirst will fund at least two million cataract surgeries where the need is greatest, continue to support Lions' large-scale surgical campaigns and increase the number of surgeries performed at Lions-affiliated eye centers.
• It will also increase the number of ophthalmologists trained at six Lions-affiliated training institutions and train at least 10,000 other eye care workers.

Trachoma and River Blindness

Trachoma and river blindness (technically named Onchocerciasis) are being successfully challenged as leading causes of blindness but remain a significant problem.

River blindness is a painful parasitic disease that affects 100 million people in equatorial Africa and Latin America and has blinded millions.

Trachoma is a bacterial infection linked to poverty, poor water supplies and poor sanitation. It too, has blinded millions and disproportionately affects children and young mothers.

Both can be treated with annual doses of antibiotic medicine and the blinding effects of trachoma can be reversed by trichiasis surgery. Clean water and improved sanitation could eliminate trachoma entirely.

The SightFirst Action Plan - River Blindness:

• Lions are the leading non-governmental organization (NGO) in the fight against river blindness and in Latin America SightFirst will play a leading role in fully eliminating the disease by 2010 through the Lions-Carter Center SightFirst Initiative. Lions will also play a major role in ensuring that a similar goal is met in Africa by 2020.
• In the process, SightFirst will provide 12-15 million people with yearly treatments with the antibiotic Mectizan (manufactured and donated by Merck & Co.) through 2010.

The SightFirst Action Plan - Trachoma:

SightFirst will expand trachoma control activities from five countries to 15 by 2010, increasing the population served from two million annually to 30-40 million. Lions' expected contributions to trachoma control through 2020 will equal about 1/4 to 1/3 of the overall funding needed to control the disease, placing Lions at the lead of the international treatment effort.

• Working with governments and NGOs, SightFirst aims to eliminate trachoma by 2020 as a blinding eye disease in the 10 countries that have 80 percent of the disease and support projects in 15 lesser-affected countries where pockets of the disease still exist.
• In the next five years Sight First will increase the number of surgeries at Lions' large-scale trichiasis surgery campaigns from 6,000 to 25- to 40,000 annually

Glaucoma and Diabetic Retinopathy Worldwide

The rapidly aging world population - there will be more than 2 billion people over the age of 45 by 2020 - also puts more millions at risk from diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and other age-related causes of blindness.

The SightFirst Action Plan:

• SightFirst will strengthen treatment services for age-related blindness by developing 200 clinics where they are most needed.

Goal 1 | Goal 2 | Goal 3