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Blindness prevention in Africa has been given a major boost from across the globe  with  the  establishment  of  the  African Vision Research Institute (AVRI) with the support of Australian organisations. Tuesday the 19th July 2005 saw the founding meeting and the appointment of an interim Board.
 
AVRI  will conduct research to aid blindness prevention programs in Africa. The  Institute  will also have a significant training component for Masters and  Doctoral  students  and  will  collaborate  with  major  international universities, researchers and other institutes.
 
The  idea  of the Institute was born when Professor Kovin Naidoo attended a World  Health Organisation meeting on Global Eye Research in Geneva in July 2003.   At the meeting he realised that public health research in blindness prevention  in  Africa had been limited.  Furthermore much of this research had been conducted by the developed world institutions and has not resulted in building the research capacity of African institutions and researchers.
 
Professor  Naidoo  raised  the idea of an African Vision Research Institute focussing  on  blindness prevention research and building local capacity so that  local  researchers  would  conduct  basic  studies  to inform service
program  development.   To  date  all  the  research  institutes  in Africa approached  have  committed  to  involvement  as well as many optometry and ophthalmology institutions in South Africa.
 
The International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE) and the Institute for Eye   Research   in  Australia  enthusiastically  contributed  support  and organisational systems to enable AVRI to get a flying start.
 
The  Institute  will be affiliated with the University of KwaZulu Natal and with  the  Institute  for  Eye  Research  in Australia ? both organisations having  a  real  commitment  to  growing  vision  and eye research with the University keen to host AVRI in Durban, South Africa.
 
Eyecare in Africa
Loss  of  sight  represents  a  public health, social and economic problem, especially  for  developing countries were 9 out of 10 of the world's blind live.   There  are  approximately  180  million  people worldwide with some
degree of visual impairment.
 
Africa  is  one  of the worst affected regions of the world, accounting for almost 7 million of the world's blind population.  In Africa, the blindness statistics  have  been  exacerbated by the 70% prevalence of HIV AIDS.  The distribution  of  the  causes  of  blindness  vary  from country to country leaving  some  countries more affected than others, however extreme paucity of  eyecare  personnel  and infrastructure to train personnel amplifies the vision care crisis.
 
The  personal  and  social  benefits  of reducing the prevalence of serious vision  loss  and blindness are undeniable.  These benefits can be achieved by  a  priority  setting  approach  that  is  driven  by appropriate vision research.   The  limited research data available in Africa however has made the process of priority setting extremely difficult.
 
Currently,  there  are  efforts  to  conduct  research  in various parts of Africa,  however  to  address the challenges of the continent, the research needs  to be carried out on a larger scale and needs to encompass all parts of  Africa  so  that  differing  needs,  based on research findings, can be catered  for.   Researchers  in  Africa  are  constantly drawing on studies abroad to make inferences and conclusions. This data is often inappropriate for the African situation.  The findings of a recent refractive error study in  children  in  Africa suggested that making inferential deductions might not  necessarily  be  appropriate  when  considering the African population since evidence indicated that the "African eye" might vary from that of the Caucasian  norms  upon  which  most  research  activities  are based.  This finding highlights the need for African eye research.
 
AVRI activities
The   African   Vision   Research   Institute   will   link  intellectuals,
institutions,  organisations  and  other  personnel  in  looking at various community eye health issues.  AVRI through its research initiatives aims to reduce the burden of blindness in Africa by conducting research relevant to disease control, human resource development and infrastructure development. Epidemiological  and  operational research will be conducted in relation to the  ocular  diseases  that  have been identified as Vision2020 priorities. These diseases include:
·    Refractive error and low vision
·    Cataracts
·    Trachoma
·    Childhood blindness
·    Blinding diseases which include: glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, age
related macula degeneration, etc.
Other important areas of investigation include:
·    Alternate delivery systems
·    Economics of blindness
 
Furthermore  AVRI hopes to build a cadre of trained researchers and enhance research  capacity on the continent.  AVRI is designing a research training program  that  is  geared  towards  providing  a  broad  range  of research expertise  and  skills,  to produce researchers who are able to further the knowledge of the causes, prevention and treatment of blindness in Africa.
 
Source : communiqué de presse

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