According to WHO estimates:
|
| |
|
Approximately 314 million people worldwide live with serious vision impairment |
|
| |
|
Of these, 37 million people are blind and 124 million have low vision |
| |
|
Also included, 153 million people are vision impaired due to uncorrected refractive errors (near-sightedness, far-sightedness or astigmatism). In most cases, normal vision could be restored with eyeglasses or contact lenses |
| |
|
Yet 75% of blindness is avoidable - i.e. treatable and/or preventable |
| |
|
90% of blind people live in low-income countries |
| |
|
Restorations of sight, and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in health care |
| |
|
Infectious causes of blindness are decreasing as a result of public health interventions and socio-economic development. |
| |
|
Aging populations and lifestyle changes mean that chronic blinding conditions such as diabetic retinopathy are now rising |
| |
|
Women face a greater risk of vision loss than men |
| |
|
Without effective, major intervention, the number of blind people worldwide has been projected to increase to 76 million by 2020 |
| |
|
|
| |
|
Sri Lankan Situation |
|
| |
|
Sri Lanka has a population of 20 million. |
|
Of these, around 150,000 people are believed to be blind. |
| |
|
Another 400,000 are having low vision. |
|
Majority of them are blind of cataract. |
| |
|
Refractive errors, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and blindness in children are the other causes of vision impairment. |
|
Sri Lanka’s population is rapidly aging, therefore age related eye diseases like cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy are on the rise. |
| |
|
|
|
