World Sight Day, 8th October 2020
‘Hope in Sight’ is the theme for this years World Sight Day; an annual awareness day that draws attention to blindness and vision impairment.Eye care issues impact every age group and it is important to have a regular eye examination, especially for those who are vulnerable: young, school-going children, the elderly, those with diabetes.
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) has chosen to mark this years campaign by updating its Vision Atlas with new estimates on the magnitude, projections and causes of vision loss.
Key messages from the The Vision Loss Expert Group that have compiled this atlas include:
- The number of people with vision loss will rise from 1.1 billion to 1.7 billion people by 2050, mainly due to population growth and population ageing.
- Over 90% of vision loss is avoidable.
- 74% of people with vision loss are over 50 years old.
- 55% of people with vision loss are women.
Read more on their page here.