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Arch Ophthalmol. 2004;122:911-912.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Today's vision preservation and blindness prevention enterprise can be traced to the founding of the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness and the World Health Organization's Blindness Prevention Program in the late 1970s. In many ways, it anticipated the larger global health agenda within which it now resides and with which it increasingly competes for attention and resources.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the world united in the successful eradication of smallpox. It was a monumental achievement of enlightened self-interest: poorer countries were spared the scourge of an untreatable disease while wealthier countries were spared the adverse effects and complications of vaccination.¹

The 1980s witnessed global investments in basic health services and immunization. Maternal and child mortality rates decreased around the world, although the gap between poor and rich countries widened.

The 1990s were a global health disaster, particularly among the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Increased poverty, political anarchy, and . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS
Baltimore, Md