Visual health needs
Source: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241516570
- More than 2.2 billion people in the world suffer from blindness or visual impairment
- 90% of visual impairment is avoidable
- 89% of affected people live in average or low-income countries
- High proportion are women
- Globally, uncorrected refraction is the main cause of visual impairment
- Other causes of visual impairment include glaucoma and cataract
- Cataract is the main cause of blindness
- Other blindness causes include glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, corneal opacities, and diabetic retinopathy
The WHO created a strategy to improve visual health at a planetary scale, called ‘’Universal Eye Health: a global action plan 2014-2019'’. This action plan, which aims to reduce the prevalence of avoidable visual impairment by 25% of the baseline values from 2010 up until 2019, follows the worldwide action program ‘’VISION 2020- Right to Sight’’, created in 1999.
For more information:
In 2017, the Vision Loss Expert Group (VLEG) published new epidemiological data on visual deficiencies in the world. To read the article.
For further information, consult the website of the Agence internationale pour la prévention de la cécité (ICEVI).