President inaugurates Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Congress

Updated on: Monday, January 21, 2013

President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Congress (APAO) in conjunction with the 71st annual conference of All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS) at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre here.

India's Rajvardhan Azad, Chief and Professor of Ophthalmology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, took over as the President of the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) on the occasion.

He is the first Indian to hold the post.

Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, AIOS president N S D Raju and others were present at the inaugural.

Being held in India after a gap of over two decades, the four-day Congress will throw light on recent advances and latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and provide an opportunity for an expected 10,000 participants from 110 countries to interact, discuss and exchange ideas with international ophthalmic experts.

Over 800 world-renowned guest speakers will address the Congress while many scientific activities will also be organised on the sidelines, Azad said.

"Who's who from the world of ophthalmology like Frank Martin, outgoing president of APAO; Dennis Lam, Secretary-General; Clement Than, Deputy Secretary-General of APAO and othersã€€are participating in the event," Azad added.

"India has the world's largest blind population, a whopping 20 per cent of the global blind population. About 12 million people are blind and numerous are visually-impaired in India. About 3.20 lakh children under the age of 16, constituting one fifth of the world's blind children, are in India," he noted.

"Cataract is the most common cause in India. Up to 80 per cent of blindness cases are curable or preventable. In numerous cases if proper detection is done in time, blindness can be prevented," Azad pointed out.

President inaugurates Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Congress

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