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Vision 2020

My Lords, I, too, congratulate my noble friend Lord Crisp on securing this very important debate. I also put on record the great work that his charity, Sightsavers, does. I am pleased to say that a charity of which I am a trustee is pleased to support it year on year. I agree with all that has been said about the burden of blindness and the loss of visual acuity in the developing world. I have seen it at first hand most recently in Cameroon, where 50 per cent of the villagers were blind from black flies attacking their sight. However, in the few minutes available to me, I would like to speak about the issues we face in our country. One relates to retinopathy of prematurity. In the previous debate we discussed the incidence of cerebral palsy in babies born prematurely—10 per cent of births are premature. Retinopathy of prematurity is emerging as an important cause of visual loss and sometimes blindness. Retinopathy of prematurity is one of the few causes of childhood visual disability, which is largely preventable. Many extremely pre-term babies will develop some degree of retinopathy. Although, in the majority, that will never progress beyond mild disease, in some it will become serious and occasionally cause blindness. In the previous debate, the Minister said that the Government have just launched a strategy for neonatal care and I hope that it includes screening of all births in the United Kingdom of less than 32 weeks, checking for retinopathy of prematurity. That would certainly reduce the incidence of visual impairment in those children. Next, I want to focus on diabetic retinopathy. We know that the incidence of obesity and, therefore, diabetes is rising; 30 per cent of our population now has a BMI—unfortunately, including me probably—greater than 30. The incidence of diabetic retinopathy is 5 per cent; 2 per cent of people with diabetes develop blindness after 15 years and 10 per cent develop severe blindness, apart from other things such as hypertension. Diabetic retinopathy is a well recognised complication of diabetes mellitus. Well conducted clinical trials have shown that good control of diabetes and hypertension significantly reduces the risk of diabetic retinopathy. Good services, which provide not only better glucose control for diabetics but rigorous screening for diabetic retinopathy and early detection of it, will reduce significantly the burden of eye problems. I turn to age-related macular degeneration. As the name implies, it is a common cause of reduced vision in the United Kingdom and it occurs in 30 per cent of people over the age of 60. Probably some of us here today suffer from the condition. Unfortunately, there is no immediate treatment or cure. We require greater research and identification at an earlier stage of development of the disease, because it has been shown that early detection will reduce further deterioration if treatment can be started earlier. I am pleased to say that recently the first phase of a four-year clinical trial of the use of embryonic stem cells has been launched by MRC and the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. The trial shows great promise. I have addressed three issues and finish by echoing what the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, said.