The statistics

Do you know that 253 million of the over 7 billion people in the world have some form of visual impairment? Of this number, 36 million people are blind. Ironically, 75% of blindness can be avoided. Avoidable blindness is one that can be prevented or treated. This means that three quarters of blind people are needlessly so.

What is responsible for avoidable blindness?

Refractive errors are the commonest causes of visual impairment. A pair of glasses can be used to correct a refractive error. They are followed closely by cataract, a whitish clouding of the lens, which can be treated by surgery. Age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma, the silent thief of sight, are next in the scheme of things.

Interestingly also, 1.1 billion people who have near visual impairment i.e. presbyopia are uncorrected. What this implies is that they cannot carry out simple activities that require near work easily such as reading, threading a needle and picking grains. A simple pair of glasses also known as readers can correct this condition.

What is the solution to avoidable blindness?

An ounce of prevention, they say, is better than a pound of cure. Being proactive about your eye health can mean the difference between a sighted life and blindness. Detecting these conditions early and managing them properly can help prevent blindness. Leading a healthy lifestyle and getting a comprehensive eye examination at least once a year are important in achieving this. It is also prudent to have a low threshold for checking out things that don’t seem right with your eyes as soon as possible.

Last words

People often say that what you don’t know cannot kill you. But when it comes to eye health, ignorance is no excuse and may in fact lead to devastating consequences. Your eyes are precious and so are you. Make taking excellent care of yourself and eyes a priority.