"Unfortunately, more than 11 million people have pathologies today," said Yelena Libman, the bureau' chief ophthalmologist.
Libman said that the World Blind Union estimated the number of blind people at 220,000 in Russia, but it could actually be twice as many.
"There are 8-9 blind people out of every 10,000 in Russia, whereas 18-19 people out of 10,000 are vision impaired," she said.
The southern Russian republics of Chechnya and Daghestan lead in the number of vision impaired residents, due to combat injuries. Eye injuries as a result of criminal showdowns have been registered in Moscow.
Glaucoma and cataract are the main reasons for sight disability. Some 800,000 people were diagnosed with cataract in 2000. That same number approached 950,000 in 2004.
But Libman stressed that growth in the number of vision impaired does not mean that ophthalmology is in decay in the country.
"We are still in the vanguard of world science," she said.
Experts say that the main reason for the rise in eye diseases was the abandoning of the system of preventive medical examination, which had allowed the early detection of eye defects.
"The gap is broad between hi-tech in-patient treatment and outpatient services, which lacks equipment and staff," Libman said.
