NEWSCOPE RESEARCH ISSUES WELL-BEING TRENDS THEME PERSONA
Vision on Blindness cure needs aggressive approach
By InnoHEALTH Editorial Team
Despite current measures, blindness in the world is increasing by 1 to 2 million cases per year – the result is a 100 % increase in world blindness by the year 2020 unless more aggressive measures are in place.
The World Health Organization( WHO) estimates that 80 % of visual impairment is either preventable or curable with treatment. As of 2015, there were 940 million people with some degree of vision loss. 246 million had low vision and over 45 million were blind with 60 % of these individuals living in China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa. Majority of people with poor vision reside in the developing world and are over the age of 50 years. Visual impairments have considerable economic costs both directly due to the cost of treatment and indirectly due to decreased ability to work.
India is home to over 8 million blind people, another 50 million have moderate to severe vision impairment. The loss of sight causes enormous human suffering for the affected individuals and their families. It also represents public health, social and economic problem for countries, especially the developing ones, where 9 out of 10 of the world ' s blind live.
Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment or vision loss, is a decreased ability to see to a degree that causes problems not fixable by usual means. The term blindness is used for complete or nearly complete vision loss. Visual impairment may cause people difficulties with normal daily activities such as driving, reading, socializing and walking.
uncorrected refractive errors( 43 %), cataracts( 33 %), and glaucoma( 2 %). Refractive errors include nearsighted, farsighted, presbyopia and astigmatism. Cataracts are the most common cause of blindness. Other disorders that may cause visual problems include age related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, corneal clouding, childhood blindness, and a number of infections. Screening for vision problems in children may improve future vision and educational achievement.
According to Mr. J. P. Nadda, Minister of Health & Family Welfare,“ The central government is committed, inter alia, to developing and strengthening the strategy of NPCB towards‘ Eye Health for All’ by way of preventing visual impairment through provisioning of comprehensive universal eyecare services and quality service deliveries”. Mr. Ashwani Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare says,“ Despite greater awareness and policy interventions, blindness in the world is increasing phenomenally and according to WHO, unless more aggressive measures are taken, there may be 100 percent increase in blindness by year 2020.
The most common causes of visual impairment globally are
44 Volume 3 | Issue 3 | July-September 2018