Published Online:December 2025
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Case Folio
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJCF011225
DOI:10.71329/CaseFolio/2025.25.4.6-20
Author Name:K B S Kumar and Indu Perepu
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Management
Download Format:PDF
Pages:6-20
According to the World Health Organization, cataracts are the leading cause of vision impairment. The burden of cataracts was high among people in middle-and low-income countries. Apart from aging, malnutrition, long-term exposure to ultraviolet rays, altitude, and weather were the major causes of the high prevalence of cataracts among these people. Cataract treatment requires a surgical procedure in which the cloudy lens are removed and an intraocular lens (IOL) is implanted. This restores the patients’ vision. This procedure is expensive due to the high cost of the IOLs, the required equipment, and the complexity of the surgery. Its availability is limited to a small number of secondary and tertiary care facilities in only a few countries. Sanduk Ruit from Nepal and Geoffrey Tabin from the US addressed these challenges through their non-profit organization, the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP). Over three decades, they have restored the vision of more than 1.4 million people. HCP trained over 19,500 eye care professionals and provided basic treatment to 14.5 million people. As HCP continued to expand its operations, there was much that remained to be done. With the global burden of cataracts expected to increase further due to climate changes and global warming, HCP needs to expand rapidly to reduce blindness in middle-and low-income countries.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cataracts had been the world’s leading cause of vision impairment as of 2023, affecting 94 million people.1 Only 17% of people with cataract-related vision impairment were able to receive proper treatment.iii,2 According to a research published in Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, the global cataract burden fell heavily on low-income countries. The publication stated, “Cataracts are the most unevenly distributed non-communicable eye disease in the world, placing the greatest burden on middle-and low-income countries, which result from the combined effects of socioeconomic and environmental factors.”iv Nearly 25 years after the world entered the new millennium, eye care remained one of the greatest public healthcare challenges.