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The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) is a coordinating, umbrella organization to lead an international effort in mobilizing resources for blindness prevention activities. It was set up on January 1, 1975, by the late Sir John Wilson, the Founder President. The founding members were the World Blind Union, and the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (now the International Council of Ophthalmology). ==Mission== IAPB aspires to link professional bodies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), educational institutions, and interested individuals, with national programmes for the prevention of blindness. According to the WHO, more than 161 million people were visually impaired, of whom 124 million people had low vision and 37 million were blind all over the world in 2002 () (). It has been estimated that the number of blind people will rise to 76 million by 2020. Close to 75% of this blindness is avoidable. The treatment of cataracts, which accounts for nearly half of all blindness, is one of the most cost-effective health interventions known. In their study on the magnitude and cost of global blindness, (Frick and Foster ) calculate that successful implementation of VISION 2020 would lead to the prevention of 429 blind-person years (defined as "one year of blindness for an individual"). This will have a dramatic effect on the lives of millions of people — those with blindness, as well as their caregivers. The first major achievement of IAPB was the establishment of the (WHO Programme for Prevention of Blindness ) (WHO/PBL), with which, it then entered into an official relationship. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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