Vulnerable Populations: Indigenous Eye Health and Covid-19: Australia
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are three times more likely to be blind or vision impaired than other Australians and they are less likely to be able to access essential services such as cataract treatment. Despite inequities such as these, less than 1% of Covid-19 patients in Australia have been Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders – in a population of over 800,000 people, only 59 have contracted Covid-19.
Tennille Lamb from the Fred Hollows Foundation Indigenous Australia Program and Dr Kris Rallah-Baker – Australia’s first Indigenous Ophthalmologist – discuss the success of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander response to the pandemic. They address the community based foundations of eye health programmes and the importance of ensuring indigenous development of indigenous solutions.
This is the first presentation in IAPB’s Indigeneity and Eye Health Series. We will be posting regularly in the lead-up to our Global Assembly in October 2021. Check back August 9 for our next instalment, coinciding with the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.