BBC’s Peter White and charity Sightsavers highlight the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness

This World Sight Day (13 October) the charity Sightsavers will pledge to raise £62 million to eliminate the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness, trachoma.

BBC Disability Affairs Correspondent and Radio 4 presenter, Peter White, will endorse the charity’s initiative by presenting his personal experience of its work in Kenya to guests including some of the UK’s most influential policy makers

Sightsavers has decided to carry out this unprecedented investment in order to eliminate trachoma from the 14 African and Asian countries where it is endemic, by 2020. To do this, the charity has pledged to raise an additional £6.25 million yearly to tackle trachoma for the next ten years. This is the biggest single investment Sightsavers has ever made to combat the disease.

Though eliminated in most developed countries, trachoma remains a significant threat in the developing world, affecting more than 84 million people. The disease of poverty mainly affects people who live in hot, dry and dusty areas where there is poor availability of water and sanitation. Triggered by bacteria, after years of repeated infection the inside of the eyelid may be scarred so severely that the eyelid turns inward and the lashes rub on the eyeball, scarring the front of the eye. If untreated this condition leads to blindness. It costs Sightsavers as little as £5 to carry out an operation to treat severe trachoma.

Peter White has witnessed first-hand the devastating effects that trachoma can have on people’s lives in some of the world’s poorest countries where Sightsavers works. Earlier this year, the BBC correspondent travelled to Africa to learn more about Sightsavers’ work to fight trachoma in the Marasabit region of Kenya, an area blighted by drought which is exacerbating disease levels.

Speaking about his experience in Kenya, Peter White said: “What struck me most was the scale of the problem Sightsavers face and the devastating effect sight loss has in an economy where everyone’s contribution is vital. For the first time it was explained to me that losing your sight as a herdsman, or running a home with many children, can be an economic disaster and it became clear to me that the work Sightsavers does can literally restore lives in a matter of minutes.”

Sightsavers’ ambitious ten-year plan will aim to:

–        Operate on one million trachoma patients by 2020

–        Expand antibiotic distribution to 84 million people

–        Ensure at least 80 percent of children aged between one and nine have clean faces by encouraging face washing

Commenting on the initiative, Simon Bush, Sightsavers Director for Advocacy and African Alliances, said: “Sightsavers knows there is an urgent need for global efforts to be increased if the goal of eliminating trachoma by 2020 is to be reached and, more importantly, if people are to be stopped from needlessly going blind. A massive backlog of patients require surgery – if we don’t act quickly they will be blinded by trachoma.”

At the event, entitled, ‘A SAFE solution: our plan to eliminate blinding trachoma’, Peter White is to address some of the UK’s most influential policy makers including the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for
International Development, Stephen O'Brien; Sightsavers’ Chairman, Lord Nigel Crisp; and esteemed Professor Alan Fenwick OBE who has been pivotal in raising the issue of NTDs to the international community.

*********
This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.