This was according to former deputy president and newly appointed International Council of Ophthalmology ambassador Kgalema Motlanthe, who said more educational and awareness campaigns and accessibility to treatment were required to combat these challenges.
There are about 383 920 known blind people in South Africa, with a ratio of six ophthalmologists per million people.
“It is unacceptable that most blind children in Africa have lost their sight due to preventable causes,” Motlanthe said.
He said communities should be enabled to assist either through information sharing and referring others to centre’s or agencies that could provide assistance.
However, he said this could only be achieved if people were well informed.
“People need to know what to do, where to access assistance if they are confronted with, for example, a baby that is born with natural cataracts or people of advanced age whose cataracts result in loss of sight,” he said.
“It is important to ensure that those communities that live on the periphery know where to go to get assistance.”
Deputy Minister of Health Joseph Phaahla said although the government had been focusing on this preventable disease, the public sector could not claim that work in this area was sufficient.
According to Phaahla, other more widespread debilitating non-communicable diseases such as cancer, blood pressure and diabetes tend to be prioritised.
Earlier this year, the Gauteng health department embarked on a drive to educate people on the importance of eye health and screening in order to avoid complications resulting from poor eye care.
As part of programme, more than 21 nurses were deployed at the province’s schools to identify pupils who needed to be examined by an optometrist.
Apart from work done in the public sector, the private sector had undertaken many initiatives to promote eye care awareness, Phaahla said.
However, people generally sought to educate themselves about ailments that were known to lead to loss of life and tend not to seek information about preventable blindness, he said.
Lack of awareness, including limited knowledge of other diseases that cause blindness, resulted in many people not seeking help and merely accepting their condition, he said.
Diabetes, trachoma, cataracts, refractive error and glaucoma were some of the conditions that could lead to blindness.
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