World Sight Day will be observed throughout the globe, including Pakistan on Thursday, October 11. The annual World Sight Day provides an opportunity to become more aware and more committed to ensuring the right to sight for all.
World Sight Day is an annual event focusing on the problem of global blindness; it aims to raise public awareness around the world about the prevention and treatment of loss of vision. The event, draws attention to the right to sight. The day will focus on governments' pledges to ensure increased access to health services in relation to both prevention and treatment of eye conditions.
Providing access to eye care, which reduces the magnitude of avoidable blindness, is part of the obligation under the right to the highest attainable standard of Blindness and Deafness Programme. Every five seconds one person in the world goes blind. One child goes blind every minute. It is estimated that over seven million people become blind every year.
An estimated 180 million people worldwide are visually disabled. Of those, between 40 and 45 million persons are blind. Due to growing populations and ageing, these numbers are expected to double by the year 2020 making a colossal human tragedy even worse, stalling development and denying a basic human right.
Up to 80 percent of cases of blindness are avoidable, either resulting from preventable conditions (20 percent) or being treatable (60%) so that sight is restored. Prevention and treatment of vision loss are among the most cost-effective and successful of all health interventions.
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