World Sight Day 2018
- shanequinn73
- Oct 12, 2018
- 2 min read
No better day to start Look Eyecare's first blog than World Sight Day. Today is an international day of awareness to focus attention on worldwide avoidable blindness and visual impairment. World Sight Day is coordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.
The theme of World Sight Day 2018 is Eye Care Everywhere
The main messages for World Sight Day:
• Globally, 1.3 billion people live with some form of vision impairment.
• 36 million people are blind.
• With regards to distance vision, 188.5 million people have mild vision impairment, 217 million have moderate to severe vision impairment.
• 826 million people have near vision impairment, meaning it is difficult for them to perform close-up work such as reading.
• Wearing glasses for many corrects their eyesight, but 1.2 billion people don’t have access to eye care services.
• 12 million children worldwide struggle to learn simply because they need glasses.
• Many studies have shown that approximately 80% of the causes of vision impairment could be avoided if people had access to eye care services.
• Most people with vision impairment are over the age of 50 years
The leading causes of vision impairment are:
• Uncorrected vision that glasses will correct
• Cataract
• Macular Degeneration
• Glaucoma
• Diabetic Retinopathy
• Corneal Opacity
• Trachoma
In developed countries diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration are the more common eye eye conditions.
We are very lucky to be able to access eye services like eye tests easily. But how many of us have eye regular eye tests? We go to the dentist every 6 to 12 months. We will see a GP when we don’t feel well. Our eyes don’t usually hurt when something is wrong. An eye test is a vital health check for your eyes that can pick up early signs of eye conditions (many of which are mentioned above) before you're aware of any symptoms – most of them can be treated if found early enough.
Look Eyecare collects old glasses for a charity called Vision Aid Overseas. They did send these glasses overseas but its not the best way to establish sustainable eye care in developing countries. Instead they help the world see by recycling the donated second-hand glasses for their precious metal content and any retro or vintage glasses are sold on their eBay shop or to specialist buyers. Plastic glasses are recycled. The income generated through the recycling process enables us to deliver sustainable eye care services in our partner countries.
You can also donate to Vision Aid Overseas
So, we should care about our eye care and the services that are readily available to us. We are very fortunate. As Look Eyecare says:
Keeping sight of what’s important
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