What is World Sight Day?
On the second Thursday in October, World Sight Day encourages people to concentrate on vision health, blindness, and vision impairment.
The day is both a call to action and a call for concern regarding vision care around the world. Blindness and vision impairment can be reduced by disease prevention. World Sight Day aims to raise awareness and accessibility to care for those who need services beyond prevention.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 285 million people of all ages are visually impaired. Uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts are two of the visual impairments that result in visual impairment. Sadly, 80% of all visual impairments are preventable. People with visual impairments who are poor simply don't have the funds to buy a pair of eyeglasses. Many people are unable to afford cataract surgery, or there is no one in their area to perform the procedure.
39 million people are blind, out of those with visual impairments. The following are some of the most common causes of blindness:
