World Sight Day (WSD) is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. World Sight Day 2019 is on 10 October 2019. This year, the call to action is ‘Vision First!’.
Key Messages:
Globally, 36 million people are blind, and 217 million people have moderate or severe distance vision impairment (MSVI)
Of those with blindness and MSVI, 124 million people have uncorrected refractive errors and 65 million have cataract—more than 75% of all blindness and MSVI is avoidable.
In 2015, 253 million people were blind or vision impaired.
1 billion people have near-vision impairment
89% of vision impaired people live in low and middle-income countries.
55% of moderate or severely vision impaired people are women.
Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have a vision impairment or blindness, of whom at least 1 billion have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed.
The leading causes of visual impairment and blindness are:
- Cataracts (39%)
- Refractive errors (18%)
- Age related causes (17%)
- Glaucoma (10%)
- Macular Degeneration (7%)
- Diabetic Retinopathy (4%)
The prevalence of blindness and vision impairment combined has dropped from 4.58% in 1990 to 3.37% in 2015.
45% of all visually impaired people live in China and India
Social Messages:
- 1.2 Billion people need #glasses to see better.
- More than 75% of visual impairment is avoidable.
- #Cataract & #VisualImpairment are # 1 causes of sight loss today. In 10 years? #Diabetes #WSD2019
- #GuideDogs can make a big difference – eye health includes assistance #VisionFirst
- Those with irreversible blindness can continue to lead a full life – Eye health is not just about avoidable blindness.
Useful Links:
Link to the World Sight Day 2019 website:
Link to World Sight Day 2019 Promotional material:
Link to World Sight Day 2019 video:
communitymedicine4all 