Sub-Saharan Africa is afflicted with high levels of blindness burden, affecting the
quality of life and productivity of its people. While cataracts account for over
40 per cent of blindness, uncorrected refractive error leading to vision loss is over
50 per cent. The number of ophthalmologists and optometrists in the region, who
can restore vision by surgery, and provide corrective eyeglasses for uncorrected
refractive error, respectively, is woefully inadequate. However, most of these
countries have primary health care centres. Workers in these centres have played
remarkably successful roles in working with professionals in helping to reduce the
burden of blindness due to onchocerciasis and trachoma.