MENA’s Preventable Blindness Crisis Isn’t About Meds Or Money But Political Will |
The Eastern Mediterranean’s/MENA preventable blindness crisis isn’t about money or medicine—it’s about political will
In a region defined by conflict, displacement, and geopolitical tension, there is one challenge that transcends borders and affects nearly everyone’s family eventually: preventable vision loss. Approximately 40 million people across the Eastern Mediterranean—from the Gulf to North Africa—live with visual impairment. Five million are blind. The tragedy isn’t that we lack solutions. It’s that we’ve had them for decades and haven’t deployed them.
Consider the numbers: cataract surgery costs between $50 and $300 in our region, restoring sight to someone who might otherwise spend their remaining years in darkness. Compare that to dialysis at $15,000 to $50,000 annually, or cancer chemotherapy. Yet cataract alone accounts for nearly half of all blindness in the region. This isn’t a resource problem. It’s a priorities problem.
The Success Story Nobody Talks About
Here’s something that should give us hope: seven countries in the Eastern Mediterranean have eliminated trachoma, a blinding disease linked to poverty and poor sanitation. Oman did it in 2012. Morocco followed in 2016. Iran in 2018. Egypt just achieved validation in November 2025, bringing the global total to 27 countries free of this ancient scourge.
Egypt’s success proves something important. A country facing economic pressures, with a population of over 100 million spread across challenging geography, systematically eliminated a disease that has blinded people since the time of the pharaohs. They did it through the SAFE strategy—Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness, Environmental improvement—combining health interventions with water, sanitation, and education programs.
What made it work? Sustained political commitment. Multi-sectoral coordination. And crucially, accountability—someone was responsible for results.
Why Good Intentions Aren’t Enough
The Eastern Mediterranean presents a paradox. It includes some of the world’s wealthiest nations alongside some of its most impoverished. Saudi Arabia has over 70 ophthalmologists per million people. Somalia has fewer than one. Baghdad hosts three of Iraq’s eleven government eye hospitals while nine provinces have none.
But the problem runs deeper than resource disparities. Even wealthy Gulf states face significant gaps in diabetic retinopathy screening despite having the resources to screen every diabetic patient. Why? Because eye health isn’t........