By Afe Victor Dania
Thursday, October 13, 2002, is the World Sight Day. This is a day set aside by the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness and the World Health Organisation to create awareness on avoidable blindness, visual impairments and the importance of eye care.
The theme of this year’s celebration is “Love your eyes.”
World Sight Day draws attention to a range of issues surrounding visual impairments/blindness. It is seen as one of the most important days for communication and advocacy in eye care.
World Sight Day is under the Vision 2020—The Right to Sight global initiative, whose objective is to promote a world in which nobody is needlessly blind or visually impaired.
The aims of the World Sight Day are to raise awareness of issues surrounding blindness and visual impairment; advocacy to influence or draw governments attention worldwide to participate in and donate funds to blindness prevention programs, recruitment of eye health personnel etc; to garner support for impactful vision programs and activities, and to raise awareness on the prevention of blindness.
Globally, the common causes of visual impairments are (a) Uncorrected Refractive Errors which include myopia or otherwise known as short-sightedness, hyperopia or otherwise known as long-sightedness and astigmatism. Presbyopia is an eye condition associated with vision loss due to age. Short-sightedness or myopia makes far objects look blurry, hyperopia or longsightedness makes nearby objects look blurry, and astigmatism can also make both near and far objects look distorted. Presbyopia on the other hand makes it difficult for middle-aged and older adults to see tiny prints or other objects at close range.
(b) Cataracts: this is a clouding of the natural lens of the eyes and it’s one of the causes of blindness worldwide, and a major cause of vision loss in Africa. Cataracts can occur at any age in life because of varieties of causes and can also be present at birth.
(c) Age-related Macular Degeneration: this is a disease that affects a person’s central vision. It can result in severe central vision loss. Risk factors for Age-related Macular Degeneration include being 50 and above in age, smoking, having High Blood Pressure and eating a diet in saturated fats.
(d) Glaucoma: refers to a group of eye conditions that damage the optic nerve. The optic nerve sends visual information from the eye to the brain and it is vital for good vision. Damages to the optic nerve are often connected to high intraocular pressures of the eyes. But some types of glaucoma can still occur with normal eye pressure hence the need for regular eye checkups. This condition may be hereditary and it’s common in adult blacks. Most times, it’s symptomless hence referred to as the silent thief of sight. Blindness from glaucoma is irreversible.
(e) Diabetic Retinopathy: is a complication of diabetes caused by high blood sugar levels damaging the back of the eye known as the retina. It can cause blindness if left undiagnosed/untreated.
