Table 1. Preventing interventions for reducing incidence and prevalence of eye diseases.

Disease	Preventing interventions
Cataract	Reduction of cigarette smoking, ultraviolet light exposure, diabetes mellitus and high body mass index
	The treatment of cataract is surgical and very successful in restoring sight.
Trachoma	“SAFE” strategy: this consists of lid surgery (S), antibiotics to treat the community pool of infection (A), facial cleanliness (F), and environmental changes (E).
Childhood blindness	Compensation for vitamin A deficiency
	Vaccination against measles
	Screening and treatment of ROP
	Early treatment of glaucoma and cataracts
	Low vision correction
Refractive errors and low vision	Appropriate optical correction
	Low vision devices
Diabetic retinopathy	Risk factors of diabetic retinopathy are duration of diabetes, glycemic index, high blood pressure, insulin dependency, pregnancy, nutritional and genetic factors and selected serum lipids.
Glaucoma	If the disease is diagnosed in its early stages, there are effective therapeutic and surgical procedures for treating it.In case of progression of the disease, severe limitation of visual field and blindness will be irreversible.
AMD	Evidence suggests that there is a relation between smoking cessation and the prevention of AMD.
	Rehabilitation in the early stages of the disease involves measures such as psychological support, life skills training to adapt to the life and work environment, and the use of special assistance for the use of computers.
Corneal opacities	Public health prevention programs are the most cost-effective way to reduce the burden of corneal opacities worldwide. The only current treatment is corneal transplant surgery.
Genetic eye diseases	The only current means of prevention of genetic eye diseases is genetic counseling.
	Treatment of genetic eye diseases is largely experimental.

ROP: Retinopathy of prematurity; AMD: Age-related macular degeneration.