News Release

Management capacity is needed to tackle blindness in sub-Saharan Africa

Press release from PLoS Medicine

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest regional burden of blindness and visual impairment in the world (it has 11% of the world's population, but around 20% of the world's blindness). But simply putting in place more clinically trained manpower alone will not be sufficient to meet eye care needs, say Susan Lewallen (Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology, Good Samaritan Foundation, Moshi, Tanzania) and Amir Bedri Kello (Light for the World, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia). Dedicated managerial support will also be needed, they argue. "Management systems run by professional nonclinical personnel are needed to support clinical personnel so that they can be productive."

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Funding: No specific funding was received for this piece.

Competing Interests: Susan Lewallen is married to Paul Courtright. She is also an editorial board member. Paul Courtright was not involved in the peer review of this paper.

Citation: Lewallen S, Kello AB (2009) The Need for Management Capacity to Achieve VISION 2020 in Sub-Saharan Africa. PLoS Med 6(12): e1000184. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000184

IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER: http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000184

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-06-12-lewallen.pdf

CONTACT:
Susan Lewallen
Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology
Tumaini University/KCMC
PO Box 2254
Moshi,
United Republic of Tanzania
+1 255 27 2753547
slewallen@kcco.net


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