World Sight Day 2018 | National Health Portal Of India

World Sight Day 2018

World Sight Day (WSD) is celebrated every year on the second Thursday of October to draw attention on blindness and vision impairment. WSD 2018 is on 11 October 2018. It is coordinated by International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) under World Health Organization (WHO) ‘VISION 2020: The Right to Sight’ Global Initiative.

2018 is the sixth year of the WHO Global Action Plan and IAPB encourages all its members and partners to continue with the rolling theme: Universal Eye Health –ensuring that all people have access to needed health services.

This year’s call to action is: “Eye Care Everywhere” to draw attention to eye care issues so that everyone, everywhere has access to good eye health. You can plan for an eye examination and look around in your family, especially for those who are vulnerable: young, school going children, the elderly, those with diabetes.

World Sight Day highlights the importance of encouraging blindness prevention efforts; as the 80% of blindness is avoidable (preventable and/or treatable); 4 out of 5 people have avoidable visual impairment. WSD provides a platform to organizations to support individuals, communities for initiating various preventive measures to eliminate avoidable blindness and visual impairment.

What is vision 2020?

‘VISION 2020: The Right to Sight’, is a global initiative to eliminate the main causes of all preventable and treatable blindness as a public health issue by the year 2020. It was launched on 18 February 1999 by the WHO together with IAPB.

Findings of Vision Loss Expert Group Report 2017-

253 million people are visually impaired (in 2015)
36 million people are blind.
217 million people have severe or moderate visual impairment (distance).
55% of visually impaired people are women.

National Programme for Control of Blindness & Visual Impairment,* a 100% centrally sponsored scheme from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India is working since 1976 for prevention of blindness, visual impairment through provision of comprehensive eye care services, and to enhance community awareness on eye care in India. Various activities/initiatives are targeted towards achieving the goal of reducing the prevalence of blindness to 0.3% by the year 2020. National Prevalence of Childhood Blindness / Low Vision is 0.80 per thousand. Cataract, Refractive Error, Corneal Blindness, Glaucoma are main causes of blindness.

Tips for healthy eyes-

Eat well: Include more green vegetables and yellow and red fruits in diet.
Don’t smoke: Smoking is a risk factor for cataract, optic nerve damage and macular degeneration.
Wear sunglasses to protect eyes from sun’s ultraviolet rays.
Use safety glasses or protective goggles during hazardous work.
Look away from the computer screen: Rest your eyes every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Maintain proper hygiene: Wash your hands properly before rubbing your eyes or even touching your eyes.
Go for regular eye check-up.
Avoid over-the-counter (OTC) medicines for eye infections.
Exercise regularly as regular exercise not only keeps your body fit but also makes your eyes healthy.