World sight day
World sight day – World sight day is celebrated in all countries of the world, on the second Thursday in October. This year it is October 14th. This year’s action is accompanied by the slogan “Love Yours Eyes”. The goal is to encourage the population to think about the importance of vision, to emphasize the importance of vision for quality of life and ability to work. Also, it is important to remind what are the main causes of blindness and low vision, as well as to emphasize that in 80% of cases, all these causes can be prevented.
The most important are regular visits to the ophthalmologist and the detection of the disease in the initial phase, when timely and adequate treatment can help. Also, in third world countries, it is important to ensure the availability of health and even ophthalmological services.
Globally in 2020, 1.1 billion people in the world live with blindness or low vision. It is important to emphasize that all age categories can have visual impairment: children, middle-aged and elderly people, but most of them are in the category of those who have reached the age of 50.
About 600 million people in the world have poor vision at a distance, while 510 million have a problem with near vision, of which 43 million people are completely blind. 90 million children and adolescents have visual impairment, of which 2 million are completely blind.
The projection is that by 2050, 1.7 billion people will have some form of vision impairment.
Most people in the world are still blind or visually impaired due to the existence of cataracts – lens blurring, although it is reversible blindness (surgery restores vision completely in healthy eyes). The next cause of low vision is uncorrected refractive anomalies, such as: myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. All these defects are successfully corrected by wearing glasses, which are prescribed on time. These two causes are the most common globally at the expense of third world countries, ie underdeveloped countries.
In developing countries, undiscovered glaucoma and complications of diabetes – diabetic retinopathy – are the leading causes of visual impairment, and these two pathologies can lead to irreversible vision loss. The causes of blindness and low vision are very important and affect middle-aged people – the working active population, so in addition to medicine, this is also a problem of socio-economic significance. That is why it is important to constantly emphasize the importance of preventive examinations, persons after the age of 45, especially those who inherit the presence of glaucoma, persons suffering from diabetes and other metabolic diseases.
In highly developed countries, the degeneration of the yellow spot is in the first place, which leads to the loss of central vision in the elderly, after the age of 65, timely diagnosis and treatment can also lead to the preservation of vision.
At its 74th session in May this year, the World Health Assembly (WHF) reached conclusions and set the goal that it is necessary to expand the availability of ophthalmology services and the possibility of correcting refractive anomalies by 40% by 2030, and 30% greater chance of cataract surgery.
The specialist ophthalmological practice “Dr. Sandra Jovanović” and its professional team are at your disposal for preventive and diagnostic examinations of vision, as well as for the treatment and surgical interventions of the eye.
Schedule your examination today or consult with us and show that you love your eyes.
