João M. Furtado, Van C. Lansingh, María E. Nano, Marissa Carter VISION 2020 Latin America

Purpose To describe the Cataract Surgical Rate (CSR) in 19 Latin American countries from 2005 to 2011 Data obtained from National Societies of Ophthalmology, VISION 2020 Committees and Ministries of Health representatives

Latin America Pop: 563 million (* excluding the Caribbean; Source: United Nations) Cataract is the main cause of blindness in the region (41-74%) Furtado et al Surv Ophthalmol 2012

Source: United Nations Population ≥ 50 Years (2011)

Cataract Surgical Rate (CSR) Annual number of cataract operations performed per million population Lansingh et al Ophthalmic Epidemiol 2010

Country Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela CSR in Latin America

CSR in Latin America

Number of ophthalmologists (per million population)

Cataract Surgeries per ophthalmologist in Latin America

Why CSR is increasing in LA? Due to V2020 advocacy, more governments are incorporating cataract surgery as a priority, providing surgeries free of charge Strong partnership between ONGs and local foundations PAHO 5-year plan influenced policy change in many countries

Limitations Lack of reliable data in some cases (especially private sector)/Complete data is not available for all countries CSR includes all cataract surgeries performed, so an improvement in CSR does not necessarily mean more blind people are receiving surgery Discrepancies between different regions/districts of the same country are not shown by this method

Remaining challenges Improve data collection about number of surgeries performed and outcome (also disaggregate by gender, level of VA) Improve access to cataract surgery not only in countries with a low CSR, but also in rural areas from countries with a higher CSR Ageing of the population will demand more cataract surgery in the near future There’s no such an ‘target CSR’ that is good for every country

Conclusion CSR increased in 17 of 19 Latin American countries from 2005 to 2011, but cataract is still the main cause of blindness in the region Indicator should help us to improve training and influence policy CSR is a proxy indicator; we need to conduct population studies every 5 years to access quality of services and obtain CSC to determine if we are doing surgery in those with blindness/visual impairment

Acknowledgements