Vision is the most dominant of our senses and plays a critical role in every facet and stage of our lives. Without vision, we struggle to learn, to walk, to read, to participate in school and to work. yet, we take vision for granted.
Globally, at least 2.2 billion people currently have a vision impairment & 43 million persons are blind including 19 million blind children. Of these, at least 1 billion people with vision impairment have no access to essential eye care.
Every year, over seven million people become blind and 217 million people have poor vision globally.
90% of blind people live in developing countries and 55% of moderate or severely vision impaired people are women
In Nigeria, there are currently over 1 million blind individuals aged 40 years. Over 3 million adults aged 40 years have moderate to severe visual impairment
Sadly, these numbers are expected to rise, driven by population growth and the ageing of population—both of which heighten the risk of vision impairment.
Low vision and blindness affects not just the individuals, but also families, and communities
Visually impaired or blind individuals have a higher risk of chronic health conditions, accidents, social withdrawal, depression, and mortality
Globally, the life expectancy of blind persons is 1/3 less than that of their sighted peers, and most of them die within 10 years of becoming blind
In Africa the poor and blind live 15 to 20 years less than their sighted peers. About 60% of children die within 1 – 2 years of becoming blind. Sadly, 4 out of 5 blind people are needlessly blind; 80% of poor vision is readily preventable/treatable.
Prevention and treatment of vision loss are among the most cost-effective and successful of all health interventions. For instance, the estimated cost of the blindness and visual impairment burden to the global economy is over US$411 billion every year in lost productivity and health and social care whereas only US$25 billion is required to address the gap for tackling unaddressed refractive errors and cataract globally.
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