World Sight Day 2021: Love Your Eyes!

Overview

The World Sight Day (WSD) is an international day of awareness, held annually on the second Thursday of October to focus attention on the global issue of eye health. This year World Sight Day falls on 14 October 2021. WSD is coordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). WSD became an official IAPB event in the year 2000 and has been marked in many different ways in countries around the world each year.

WSD is the focal advocacy and PR event for IAPB and its members and partners each year, highlighting the fact that at least 1 billion people have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed.

Objective

• Raise public awareness of blindness and vision impairment as major international public health issues.
• Influence Governments/Ministers of Health to participate in and designate funds for national blindness prevention
  programmes.
• Educate target audiences about blindness prevention.

World Sight Day 2021

• This year’s WSD theme is: Love Your Eyes
• Our Call to Action is: EVERYONE COUNTS

#LOVEYOUREYES

Nearly everyone on the planet will experience an eye health issue in their lifetime and more than a billion people worldwide do not have access to eye care services. Before, we can look at the bigger picture at the country or global level, we need to make sure that we are aware of our own eye health, and so our theme for 2021 is all about #LoveYourEyes.

LoveYourEyes is all about being aware of your own eye health and if you are able, to get a sight test.

EVERYONE COUNTS
For World Sight Day 2021 EVERYONE COUNTS and so in the month leading up to World Sight Day we are calling on everyone who can to book a sight test / exam / screening.

KEY MESSAGES

• 1.1 billion people experience vision loss primarily because they do not have access to eye care services.
  – Over 90% of those with vision loss live in low- and middle income countries.
  – 73% of people with vision loss are over 50 years old.
  – 55% of people with vision loss are women.
• 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.
• Unaddressed poor vision results in a global economic productivity loss of $411 billion per annum.
• Over 90% of vision loss could have been prevented.
• The leading causes of vision loss include:
  – Uncorrected refractive error
  – Unoperated cataracts
  – Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy
• Poor eye health leads to an increased risk (up to 2.6 times) of mortality.
• Children with a vision impairment are up to 5 times less likely to be in formal education and often achieve poorer outcomes.
• Vast inequities exist in the distribution of vision impairment; the prevalence in many low- and middle-income regions is estimated to be four times higher than in high-income regions
• The burden tends to be greater in rural areas and for older people, women, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities and indigenous populations.

Source of info: The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB)

Recommended readings

• World Sight Day is: Eyecare Everywhere! 
• Trachoma is a disease of the eye caused by Chlamydia trachomatis
• Eyes on Diabetes – World Diabetes Day 2016
• B.Optometry Colleges and Available Seats in Nepal