Bangladesh launches WHO-backed nationwide drive to improve vision care
Initiative aims to expand eye testing, train more health workers and make corrective glasses more affordable and accessible across Bangladesh
DHAKA, Bangladesh (MNTV) — Bangladesh has launched a World Health Organization-backed program aimed at making basic vision testing and affordable eyeglasses more widely available, as the country seeks to tackle a major but often easily correctable cause of poor eyesight.
Nearly half of people covered by a 2020 national survey had refractive errors, excluding age-related difficulty focusing on nearby objects, while only 26% had adequate access to spectacles.
That leaves a large gap in treating conditions that can often be corrected through an eye examination and properly prescribed glasses.
The government on Aug. 18 formally introduced the WHO’s SPECS 2030 initiative, a global program designed to expand access to services for refractive errors such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.
Rather than introducing a new medical treatment, the initiative seeks to make existing and relatively simple forms of vision correction easier to obtain.
In Bangladesh, that will mean expanding eye-testing services, increasing the number of trained workers, improving public awareness and making spectacles more affordable, while strengthening the collection of data needed to identify gaps in care.
The program could have particularly broad consequences because untreated refractive errors affect much more than eyesight. Poor vision can make it harder for children to learn at school, limit adults’ ability to work and leave older people less able to live independently, even when their impairment could be corrected with glasses.
WHO launched SPECS 2030 globally in 2024 as part of efforts to increase effective coverage of refractive-error services by 40 percentage points by the end of the decade.
The initiative is built around five areas — improving access to services, expanding the skilled workforce, educating the public, reducing the cost of care and strengthening surveillance and research.
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital will lead implementation, with technical assistance from WHO.
The initiative is also expected to connect refractive-error treatment with Bangladesh’s wider efforts to improve eye care, including services for cataracts and diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that can damage the retina and cause permanent vision loss if not detected and treated.
Health authorities and specialists held technical sessions on Aug. 18 and 19 to develop implementation plans covering all three conditions.
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