The Lancet Digest, October 11th-18th 2008

This week in The Lancet: The leading Editorial focuses on Blindness, of which 80% is found in people aged over 50 years. Yesterday (Oct 9th) was World Sight Day, and the editorial highlights a report released by VISION 2020, Eyes on the future: fighting vision impairment in later life, in which it is reported that whilst 75% of blindness from all causes is preventable, treatable, or curable, most of those who need it have little access to even the most basic eye-care services. October 10th marks World Mental Health Day, and the WHO has used the opportunity to launch a new strategy, the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP). The editorial reports that in addition, a new Movement for Global Mental Health has been launched this week, which emerged following The Lancet series on Global Mental Health last year. The Movement... [read full story]