* 5 billion myopes by
the year 2050; up from 1.4 billion in 2000
* 1 billion high
myopes by 2050; a five-fold increase from 2000
* Number with vision
loss from high myopia to increase seven-fold from 2000 to 2050; myopia to
become a leading cause of permanent blindness worldwide.
* Australia and New
Zealand – 22 million myopes by 2050, up from 5 million in 2000; 4 million high
myopes by 2050, up from 4 million in 2050.
(February 17, 2016) One of the final articles of Professor Brien Holden has
confirmed a worrying prediction about the increasing prevalence of myopia,
finding that by 2050, half the world’s population will be myopes. Published
this week in the journal “Ophthalmology”, the study combines prevalence and
population data to project change over the next 35 years, reporting that 1
billion people will be highly myopic (≤ –5.00 D) by 2050, a five-fold increase
from 2000.
Having completed a PhD in 1970 in the area of myopia,
Professor Holden spent over three decades focussed on contact lens research
before returning to the topic with typical vigour early in the 21st century.
Alerted by data from Asia about extremely high rates of myopia, he predicted it
would eventually have a significant impact on the world and become a leading
cause of permanent blindness.
In 2003, he established the Vision Cooperative Research
Centre (Vision CRC) which with experts from the Brien Holden Vision Institute,
University of Houston, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre and a number of other
organisations around the globe commenced a research program to better
understand the mechanisms of myopia and to develop myopia control products.
Although the CRC ceased in 2015, the program continued spearheaded by the Brien
Holden Vision Institute and Professor Holden remained a relentless advocate. In
early 2015, he was the architect of a joint World Health Organization-Brien
Holden Vision Institute global scientific meeting on myopia, an acknowledgement
by the world’s peak health body of the importance of the issue.