According to WHO:
- Approximately 314 million people worldwide live with serious vision impairment
- Of these, 45 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 80% 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. Blinding trachoma now affects fewer than 80 million people, compared to 360 million in 1985
- Aging populations and lifestyle changes mean that chronic blinding conditions such as diabetic retinopathy are projected to rise exponentially
- Women face a significantly 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
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