Only 1,425 people out of every 1 million in China received cataract surgery last year, a rate much lower than that in India and the United States.

About 5,000 in 1 million receive such surgery in India every year and 8,000 in the US, said Ronald Yeoh, secretary of the Asia-Pacific Association of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons, at the 30th Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Congress in Guangzhou.

Misleading advertisements on drug treatments, a lack of awareness of the surgery, insufficient trained surgeons in some regions and the inability to finance the operation led to the low rate in China, said Zhao Yun'e, a member of the Cataract and Intraocular Lens Study Group of the Ophthalmology Branch of Chinese Medical Association.

Cataract incidence among people aged between 60 and 89 stands at about 80 per cent and about 90 per cent among those at and above 90 in China, Zhao said.

Patients need to seek diagnosis and treatment as early as possible. Surgeries are needed when their life and work are affected by loss of vision, Yeoh said.