Wednesday, May 13, 2009

FY 2010 Funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vision Health Initiative

An estimated 80 million Americans have a potentially blinding eye disease, 3 million have low vision, 1.1 million are legally blind, and 200,000 are more severely visually blind. Vision is critical to conducting activities of daily living, is a portal for language, and affects developmental learning, communicating, working, health, and quality of life. While vision impairment and blindness are among the most feared disabilities, effective public health initiatives can dramatically decrease these numbers.

As one of the nation’s foremost public health agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), serves a critical role in promoting vision health, and has been doing so through its Vision Health Initiative (VHI). Since 1908, Prevent Blindness America (PBA) has been the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization with the sole mission of preventing blindness and preserving sight. Beginning in 2003, these two organizations have become strong partners in a national vision health collaboration, aimed at strengthening and stimulating a public health effort to reduce and control vision problems in the United States.

Prevent Blindness America requests $4.5 million in federal funding to sustain and expand its efforts to address the growing public health threat of preventable vision loss among older Americans, low-income, and underserved populations, as well as to increase funding to support eye disease surveillance and evaluation systems, to ensure our nation has much-needed epidemiological data regarding overall burden and high-risk populations, so we can formulate and evaluate strategies to prevent and reduce the economic and social costs associated with vision loss and eye diseases. This funding will enhance the CDC’s Vision Health Initiative, its partnership with PBA, and will begin to reduce the incidence of vision loss and improve sight.

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