From 2006, China will provide special subsidies for eye operations as an effort to treat blindness in China's poorer western regions.

China has approximately 5 million blind people, accounting for18 percent of the global blind population, and about 450,000 Chinese lose their eyesight every year, said Wang Yu, director of the Medical Policy Office of the Ministry of Health Tuesday.

He said that from 2006, China will subsidize 500 yuan (US$62.5) for cataract operations in poorer regions in China and a five-year plan for blindness prevention is expected to issue soon.

"If no prevention measures are taken, China's blind population will quadruple to 20 million, posing a serious public health and social problem to China," Wang said.

"Sight First China Action," launched by the Chinese government and Lions Club International, aims to help cataract patients regain their eyesight. The program has two phases, each lasting five years.

The first phase saw more than 400,000 cataract patients recovered and established a national database of eye-related illness.

The second phase, starting 2002, has treated 2.22 million cataract patients, including 220,000 free operations for poor patients and has trained more than 10,000 country-level medical workers. By the end of 2005, China had spent 1 billion yuan (US$125 million) on cataract treatment. 

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2006)