World Sight Day 2018

World Sight Day focuses on bringing attention to vision impairment and Blindness. Approximately 90% of blind people are living in low-income countries; 39 million of the population is blind, around 65% of visually impaired people are more than 50
years of age.

In the year 2010, 28% of the population of the world was affected by short sightedness and the number is known to increase to 34% by the year 2020 and to 50% by the year 2050.

In the year 2014, around 422 million people had diabetes in comparison to the 108 million people in the year 1980. Out of three people with diabetes, one person suffers from diabetic retinopathy. Above that, one out of 10 people might develop a threatening aspect of the disease.

THEME OF WORLD SIGHT DAY 

The theme of World Sight Day 2018 is “Eye Care Everywhere”. This theme aims to draw attention to eye care issues so that everyone everywhere has access to good
eye health.

What is the first thing you can do? Plan for an eye examination. Look around in your family, especially for those who are vulnerable: young, school-going children, the elderly, those with diabetes

Some tips for your healthy eyes:

• Always wear good quality sunglasses while going out to protect your eyes from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.
• Eat properly and try to include more and more green vegetables in your diet.
• While performing any hazardous work, wear protective goggles or safety glasses.
• Smoking is very harmful for the eyes. It includes risk of diseases like optic nerve damage, cataract and macular degeneration. So, do not smoke.
• While working on the computer, give rest to your eyes after every 20 minutes. Try to look away for around 20 seconds from the computer screen.
• Go for routine check- up of your eyes.
• Maintain adequate hygiene and do not touch your eyes or rub them before properly washing your hands.
• Exercise on a regular basis as physical activity makes your body as well as the eyes healthy.
• For any kind of eye infections, avoid use of the over-the-counter medications.

You can share these tips also with your friends, family, and colleagues on World
Sight Day to benefit other individuals.

Conclusion

World Sight Day is an important event that focuses on what can be done to help visually impaired people. Even minor eye problems should not be taken for granted, as you never know how that little eye problem might end up becoming a huge problem in the end. It might get really critical for the ones suffering from the diseases of the eye since this is also an important sense organ of the human body.

Awareness about visual impairment is a must as four out of five people suffer from visual impairment and blindness.

Acknowledging Word Sight Day is very important as blindness is a very critical issue that has affected the lives of people worldwide. It is very significant to support blind people making it easier for the society to operate. Equally important is to be aware
as to what can be done to avoid blindness.