Celebrating World Sight Day 2020
On October 8th, various organizations, healthcare providers, and companies celebrated the annual World Sight Day. Dedicated as a day to raise awareness for blindness and ocular disease, World Sight Day elicits actionable campaigns, multiplatform educational resources, and various celebrations of ocular health. In partnership with the World Health Organization, World Sight Day draws invaluable attention to the importance of blindness prevention, patient education, and overall ocular awareness. LA’s leading Ophthalmologist, Tom Chang MD, touts the importance of recognizing this day and building awareness through such organized events.
History Of World Sight Day
The inaugural World Sight Day took place in 2000 and was originally developed by the Sight First Campaign of the Lions Club International Foundation. Since the onset of World Sight Day, it has been traditionally celebrated on the second Thursday of each October. Since its inception, the continuously growing event has been integrated into Vision 2020, The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. The organization has made vast strides in the overall realm of eye health, concentrating on underrepresented areas across the world. In addition, World Sight Day became coordinated by IAPB, in cooperation with the World Health Organization.
Since 2005, World Sight Day has had a theme during most years, with the first theme being “The Right To Sight.” 2020’s theme was “Hope In Sight”, signifying the transformative life change that can occur with proper ocular wellness. Though Ophthalmology and eye care are readily available in areas like the United States, Tom Chang MD points out that this isn’t necessarily the case across the entire world. Thus, there is vast hope in expanding ocular care across the world. The annual theme for World Sight Day has served as a targeted “call to action”, illuminating an important and timely message for global partners and participants alike.
Purpose Of World Sight Day
World Sight Day serves various incentives, and partners with a myriad of organizations to reach many immediate and long-term goals. One of the overarching goals of World Sight Day is to raise public awareness of blindness and vision impairment. Though blindness, and eye diseases, are often in the proverbial public eye, specific information and insight about these conditions are often marred by misinformation or lack of information. Thus, Tom Chang MD points to global proactive education and awareness as the keys to mitigating disease and prolonging ocular health.
Of course, global awareness incentives can’t be reached without designated programs, incentives, and funding. Thus, another integral goal for World Sight Day is to influence local governing bodies to participate in and dedicate funding, for various programs. These programs can range from blindness prevention programs to targeted educational opportunities.
The Importance Of Preventative Care
Across the world, it is estimated that about one billion individuals have a preventable eye condition that has not been addressed. Ophthalmologist Tom Chang MD points to this number as being indicative of limited awareness, resources, and funds to proactively and comprehensively care for a vast population of affected individuals. Affected eyesight, or blindness, can have exhaustive effects on almost every facet of daily life. While it is a singular facet of wellness, it can have a snowball effect on multiple life experiences. For example, minimized vision can impact an individual’s ability to successfully complete their respective job. The loss of this job would impact the individual financially, creating a burden on the individual, and any dependents. In turn, this could lead to loss of housing, inability to maintain basic life needs, and even mental health struggles. Thus, preventing these negative effects can have a tremendous and direct impact on an individual’s life.
While reduced eyesight can be caused by a plethora of factors, there are a few broad commonalities that contribute to loss of eyesight. These include diseases like trachoma and diabetes, conditions like cataracts and glaucoma, and physical trauma to the eyes. Understanding how seemingly unrelated conditions and diseases can affect eye health is an important factor in mitigating the effects of these conditions.
Access Is Everything
Hundreds of millions of individuals across the world cannot see well, mostly as a result of not having access to glasses or other vision correction tools. 90% of individuals who experience vision loss are from low-income and middle-income countries. Thus, for underrepresented communities facing vision loss, access to affordable care is integral.
Roughly 90% of vision loss is considered avoidable, equating to roughly 771 million individuals. Uncorrected refractive error is the largest cause of vision loss. Hundreds of millions of individuals live with uncorrected distance vision impairment or near vision impairment. Left untreated, these conditions can be degenerative over time. With a simple eye exam and corrective vision implements, refractive errors can be alleviated. However, access to these tools must be provided. Tom Chang MD touts the importance of widespread programs that provide basics, like glasses, to individuals across the globe.
In addition to refractive errors leading to vision loss, cataracts are the largest cause of total blindness. It is estimated that roughly 100 million individuals have vision loss from cataracts. Sight can often be restored through cataracts surgery. Again, access to cost-effective or free surgical intervention must be enhanced to allow for widespread cataracts care.
Following these widespread conditions, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy are the remaining main contributors to vision loss. Many of these conditions elicit growing vision loss over a long-term period, which can be prevented with proactive intervention. Without access to such measures, these conditions expand over time.
Advocacy And Change
Through various channels and incentives, World Sight Day aims to create systemic change, establish advocacy measures, and enlist the commitment of pertinent parties for services. One of the largest advocacy measures associated with World Sight Day is the goal of making eye care an integral part of Universal Health Coverage. The World Health Organization is calling for a “people-focused” level of universal care to be implemented. Across this incentive, vast preventative eye care could mitigate the majority of vision loss cases across the globe through access to eye exams, glasses, and cataract surgery. Offering proactive eye care across the globe will minimize the prevalent rates of vision loss. According to experts like Tom Chang MD, this change can only be brought forth through advocacy, access, and proactive care. With global incentives like World Sight Day leading the way, the vision for the future is the vision for everyone.
