Today, the 8th of October, is World Sight Day, a date decreed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) to raise awareness of blindness and visual impairment. The World Sight Day is the most important event to raise awareness about eye health and this year the chosen slogan has been Hope in Sight.
More than a bilion people cannot see well because they don’t have access to glasses or lenses. More than 3 out of 4 people in the world are visually impaired in an avoidable way.
The reduction or absence of vision can have important effects on many aspects of life such as daily personal activities, interaction with others or school and work opportunities.
Decreased vision may be due to several factors, including, diseases such as diabetes, ocular trauma or conditions such as cataracts, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or glaucoma.
Most people with vision problems are over 50; however, vision loss can affect people of all ages.
The World Sight Day is celebrated annually in order to achieve the following objectives:
This year the IAPB (International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness) has launched its social media campaign through the hashtag #HopeInSight. This hashtag is intended to diffuse the need to find solutions so that everywhere and everyone has access to the sight.
This year, World Sight Day coincides with the VISION 2020 initiative, a project that aims to eliminate the major causes of preventable and treatable blindness by the year 2020. From Institut Català de Retina we want to emphasize the importance of regular ophthalmological checkups to early detect different eye diseases.
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