International Vision Research
Our friends and neighbors in the developing world are burdened by blindness. According to the World Health Organization, 90 percent of the world's 285 million visually impaired people live in low to middle income countries. Sadly, close to 80 percent of these cases could be treated or prevented. The National Eye Institute helps reduce the burden of blindness by funding research into diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world. Currently, NEI is helping to cure treatable blindness in India and in some countries in Africa. Follow the links below to learn more.
Fogarty International Center's Global Health Newsletter
Focus on the National Eye Institute PDF*
- Battling global blindness, eye disease through research
- Research shows the path toward trachoma elimination
- Background: Blindness from trachoma and trichiasis
- Vision research leads to new theories on brain plasticity
- Turmeric may treat retinitis pigmentosa eye disease
- Q and A with NEI's Dr John Prakash
India
Project Prakash Enlightens Our Understanding of Vision
Can we learn to see things after a certain age? How do we learn to recognize things? Do our senses overlap? Project Prakash provides a unique opportunity to directly address these questions. The project gives sight to children who have treatable blindness, usually from congenital cataracts and other reversible eye conditions. These children are old enough to describe what they see, allowing Dr. Pawan Sinha, a researcher at the MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and his colleagues to study human visual development, object recognition, and other difficult topics. Read more
Ethiopia, Niger, and Tanzania
Improving Global Vision: The Path to Eliminating Trachoma
Trachoma, a bacterial infection of the eye, is currently the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide. Treatment of trachoma became possible in the 1990s following the discovery of an antibiotic against the bacterium, Chlamydia trachomatis. Since then, NEI-funded research has played a critical role in assessing the effectiveness of administering this antibiotic to entire communities. This research is now helping to guide global efforts to eliminate trachoma within the next decade. Read more
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