Image: UGA Psychology Faculty Present Research at Global Vision Meeting October, 2010 This October Drs. Hammond and Renzi presented at a meeting called “Countdown to 2020” at the CERN Globe of Science and Innovation in Geneva Switzerland. This event, which was a joint initiative of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and the World Health Organization, was attended or sponsored by every major international eye care NGO, as well as representatives of all of the major ophthalmology and optometry associations and the World Blind Union. The University of Georgia was the only academic institution represented. The goal of the meeting was to discuss strategies to eliminate avoidable blindness and visual impairment worldwide. Drs. Hammond and Renzi focused on the priority eye diseases identified by WHO (click here for a PDF version of their article) and how nutrition can be used as an effective prophylaxis. Over 45 million people in the world are blind and 269 million live with seriously reduced vision. At least 80% of all blindness, however, is avoidable with proper nutrition (e.g., Vitamin A supplementation in less developed countries) or behavioral intervention (e.g., avoiding infection eye disease through better sanitary practices). One of the major goals of the Vision Sciences Laboratory, and the newly formed Human Biofactors Laboratory, is the furtherance of this goal.
