Next to life God’s most precious gift to man is sight. The eyes are the windows of the entire body. Have you ever imagine what the world looks like with your eyes shut? hence that tells you that the beauty of the world could be worthless in the absence of sight.
Around the world, 1.1 billion people are living with vision loss. 90% of vision loss is in low- and middle-income countries. 90% of all vision loss is preventable or treatable (https://operationeyesight.com/avoidable-blindness/).
Certain conditions of blindness could actually be prevented if only we adjust the kind of life styles and environmental culture we give in to. These are often cases of preventable blindness such as uncorrected refractive error, diabetic retinopathy, cataract , trachoma, river blindness and glaucoma which stand a greater chance of being avoided if only we adopt a change in certain unhealthy lifestyle and eye care habits.
Hence, there is greater need for awareness programs to educate the public, especially residents of low and middle income regions who may not be able to afford the cost of treatment of these conditions properly once obtained. We thus celebrate the WORLD SIGHT DAY yearly in bid to let the public be aware of their eyes and its importance to their day to day activities and healthy living.
World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on vision impairment, including blindness. This year, World Sight Day will take place on October 14, 2021 with the theme: Love Your Eyes.
The theme of this year’s world sight day stands unique and concerned to all:
THEME: LOVE YOUR EYES
Globally, at least 1 billion people have near or distance vision impairment that could be prevented or has yet to be addressed. Vision impairment affects people of all ages, with the majority being over the age of 50. Vision impairment and blindness can have major and long-lasting effects on all aspects of life, including daily personal activities, interacting with the community, school and work opportunities and the ability to access public services.
Unoperated cataract and uncorrected refractive error are the leading causes of vision impairment. Other causes such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, infectious diseases of the eye, and trauma, however, cannot be ignored and need to be addressed.
Uncorrected refractive error
Unoperated cataract
Age related macular degeneration
Diabetioc retinopathy
Glaucoma–optic disc ratio enlargement
Target areas of pressure in glaucoma
Trachoma
Eye infections
Recently at the 74th World Health Assembly, Member States adopted two new global targets for eye care by 2030 ̶ a 40 per cent increase in effective coverage of refractive errors and a 30 per cent increase in effective coverage of cataract surgery. These targets will play a key role in not only increasing global eye care coverage in the future but also in delivering quality services.
Lets celebrate the lovely sight that we enjoy. Celebrate the Eye care practitioners, celebrate the WORLD SIGHT DAY
WHO celebrates world sight day.
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