Keeping an eye on vision: How China fights blindness

When he was diagnosed with ocular melanoma, an anesthesiologist surnamed Cheng feared that he would have to lose his eyes since the removal of eyeballs is a common method for treating intraocular tumors. 

Breaking the tradition, however, Wei Wenbin from Beijing Tongren Hospital has been pioneering partial excision and radiotherapy in the country. When Wei informed the anesthesiologist that his eyes could be saved, Cheng realized that his fate could be altered.

"Never did I expect to not only have my eyes saved but also continue to save lives in the operating room," said Cheng who lives in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. 

Beijing Tongren Hospital, as a leading unit of the national technical guidance group for blindness prevention and a World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating center for prevention of blindness, has made a series of breakthroughs in recent years.

These include offering an easier and more widely applicable treatment for ocular melanoma and advocating for the establishment of an infectious eye disease diagnosis and treatment center in Beijing to address eye diseases in patients with liver disease, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. It also pioneered the establishment of a diagnosis and treatment platform for intraocular tumors and a screening center for pediatric eye tumors.

These breakthroughs at the hospital represent China's efforts in preventing and treating blindness on a larger scale. 

Since the 1980s, China has continuously implemented plans for blindness prevention and treatment. On the National Eye Care Day in China, which falls on June 6 every year, various activities are held to raise people's awareness for the prevention of myopia and doing regular eye health checks.

In 2014, China successfully eliminated blinding trachoma, which used to be the leading cause of blindness in the country. After years of efforts, some medical institutions in China have reached the same level as developed countries in vision restoration cataract surgery.

By the end of 2020, China had achieved a standardized age-specific prevalence of blindness lower than the global average and had made significant progress in eliminating avoidable blindness.

However, China is still among the countries that face the highest number of blind and visually impaired patients. The issue of inadequate and uneven distribution of quality medical resources in ophthalmology persists.

Xu Xun, director of the National Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, highlighted the changing spectrum of eye diseases in China.

There is an increasing severity of eye problems caused by metabolic diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and hypertensive retinopathy, Xu said.

In 2022, retinal fundus diseases were included as key focus diseases in the national eye health plan for the first time. Xu emphasized that a comprehensive and systematic focus on retinal fundus diseases plays a crucial role in raising public awareness and enhancing China's capacity to prevent and treat such diseases.

At present, the number of retinal fundus disease patients in China is estimated to exceed 40 million, while the country only has around 5,000 specialized doctors to cater to their needs.

While the absolute number of specialized doctors in retinal fundus diseases is not insignificant, it remains relatively small compared to the increasing demand from patients, Xu said.

To address the problems, the National Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases and related associations have established standardized retinal fundus disease diagnosis and treatment processes and scientific management models for chronic retinal diseases in over 1,000 medical institutions nationwide.

"We need to further promote innovation in retinal fundus disease diagnosis and treatment management models, conduct precise early screening, and enhance comprehensive disease management," Xu said.

(With input from Xinhua)