World Sight Day (WSD) is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday, October 8 to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment.
According to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB):
Approximately 285 million people worldwide live with low vision and blindness.
Of these, 39 million people are blind and 246 million have moderate or severe visual impairment.
90% of blind people live in low-income countries.
80% of visual impairment is avoidable, being readily treatable and/or preventable.
Restorations of sight, and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in healthcare.
The number of people blind from infectious causes has greatly decreased in the past 20 years.
An estimated 19 million children are visually impaired.
About 65 % of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this age group comprises only 20% of the world’s population.
Increasing elderly populations in many countries mean that more people will be at risk of age-related visual impairment.
