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INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE |
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Year : 2012 | Volume
: 60
| Issue : 5 | Page : 345-346 |
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Introduction to Special Issue
Santosh G Honavar
Associate Director, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India
Date of Web Publication | 4-Sep-2012 |
Correspondence Address: Santosh G Honavar Associate Director, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad India
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0301-4738.100523
How to cite this article: Honavar SG. Introduction to Special Issue. Indian J Ophthalmol 2012;60:345-6 |
The 9 th General Assembly (9GA) of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) will be held in Hyderabad, India, from 17 to 20 September 2012. The IAPB is the alliance which leads worldwide efforts in blindness prevention, with a membership of 117 organizations including virtually every major international eye health NGO, as well as global eye health professional associations.
The theme of 9GA is "Eye Health: Everyone's Business." From economic productivity loss in the poorest communities to impacts on personal dignity and empowerment, eye health is already everyone's business. 9GA presents an opportunity to ask how we broaden the responsibility for eye health, reaching beyond traditional health care boundaries to put eye health on everyone's agenda, addressing the fact that an estimated 285 million people are blind or visually impaired worldwide. As the year 2020 approaches, adoption of eye care as a public health priority, and collaboration between governments and policy makers, health care providers, the eye health industry, and public health workers at every level is vital if the goal of eliminating avoidable blindness is to be realized.
The All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS) and the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology (IJO) are active partners in this venture. The IJO is pleased to bring out a special issue on the theme "Prevention of Blindness" to commemorate 9GA and supplement the IAPB's efforts in spreading the right message to the right people.
A special editorial board was constituted to conceptualize, plan, invite leading authors, edit, and embellish this special issue of the Journal. I would like to thank the editorial team for its coordinated efforts. Rohit Khanna and Usha Raman did the hard work of collating and editing, ably supported by Subhabrata Chakrabarti and Divya Choudary. The team IJO, led by the energetic editor S Natarajan, and meticulous Radhika Krishnan and her associates did a wonderful job in bringing out the special issue on time and in perfect shape. I specifically thank S Natarajan and the AIOS for this wonderful opportunity.
Best wishes,
Santosh G Honavar
Associate Director, LV Prasad Eye Institute,
Hyderabad, India.
E-mail: [email protected]
Special Issue: Editorial Board
Editors, Special Issue
Rohit Khanna, MD, MPH
Usha Raman, PhD
Subhabrata Chakrabarti, PhD
Santosh G Honavar, MD, FACS
Editorial Assistant
Divya Choudary, MA
International Advisory Board
Nathan Congdon, MD, MPH, China
Brien A Holden, PhD, DSc, OAM, Australia
Van Lansingh, MD, PhD, USA
Gullapalli N Rao, MD, FACS, India
Hugh Taylor, AC, MD, FRANZCO, Australia
Iapb | | |
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) is the alliance which leads worldwide efforts in blindness prevention, with a membership of 117 organisations including virtually every major international eye health NGO, as well as global eye health professional associations. IAPB brings together professional bodies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), educational institutions, corporations and national programmes for the prevention of blindness towards realising the goals of VISION 2020.
In the mid-1970s, the late Sir John Wilson among others began to draw the international community's attention to the problem of avoidable blindness. These efforts led to the setting up of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) on January 1, 1975, as a coordinating, umbrella organisation to lead international efforts in blindness prevention activities. The founding members were the World Blind Union (WBU) and the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO). The first major achievement of IAPB was to promote the establishment of a WHO Programme for Prevention of Blindness, with which it has remained strongly linked, and which is now embodied in the global initiative, VISION 2020: The Right to Sight.
9th General Assembly | | |
The 9 th General Assembly (9GA) of IAPB will be in Hyderabad, India, from 17 to 20 September 2012, organised in conjunction with the L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI). The theme of this assembly is " Eye Health: Everyone's Business".
The premier global event for discussion of public health topics related to blindness and visual impairment, 9GA will highlight progress in VISION 2020: The Right to Sight, IAPB's joint global initiative with the World Health Organization for the elimination of avoidable blindness.
IAPB General Assemblies are held every four years, rotating between seven world regions. The 8 th Assembly (8GA) in 2008 saw close to 800 delegates from 60 countries attend keynote lectures, presentations from invited speakers, clinical and administrative courses and symposia, over four days in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 8GA was widely praised for providing excellent networking opportunities - and for being the largest single gathering of experts in every aspect of blindness prevention and rehabilitation.
9GA will build on this success, and is positioned to attract a broader audience from the eye health and development sectors, leveraging VISION 2020 and IAPB as success stories in multi-sector public-private partnerships for public health. Keynote lectures and speakers will discuss strategies to strengthen health systems, thereby offering opportunities to highlight linkages between VISION 2020 objectives and general public health care delivery. 9GA expects to receive close to 1,500 delegates from across the eye care, health and development sectors.
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