Every year, the world commemorates World Sight Day as a unique day of awareness to raise awareness of blindness and vision impairment. The World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness jointly founded this day, and a variety of events are held to raise awareness of it. World Sight Day has attracted a lot of organisations from all over the world for a long time. Others opt to participate by submitting a photo that will be included in an international photo montage with a blindness-related theme. Some individuals choose to show their support by planting trees, while others choose to get involved by contributing a photo.
Vision, the most powerful of our senses, is essential at every stage of our life since our entire existence is based on our ability to see. Vision is essential for the new born to identify its mother and form a bond with her; for the toddler to master balance and learn to walk; for the schoolboy to read and learn while walking to class; for the young woman to participate in the workforce; and for the older woman to maintain her independence. However, as this paper demonstrates, eye disorders and vision impairment are pervasive and still go untreated far too frequently. At least 2.2 billion people worldwide suffer from some form of vision impairment, and of these, at least 1 billion have a condition that could have been avoided or is still unaddressed. This load is not being carried equally, as usual. It affects older persons, rural areas, low- and middle-income countries more severely. Most concerning is that estimates indicate that demand for eye care will increase significantly worldwide in the upcoming years as a result of population expansion, ageing, and lifestyle changes. Undoubtedly, we are forced to accept this task. It is time to ensure that as many individuals as possible across all nations can see as clearly as current medical advancements and healthcare infrastructure permit. The World Report on Vision outlines specific recommendations to address issues with eye care. The main suggestion is to widely scale up integrated, patient-centred eye care that is integrated into primary healthcare systems and built on sound foundations. Patients who require eye care must be able to access high-quality treatments without facing difficulty. Every nation’s path to achieving universal health coverage must include eye care in national health plans and key bundles of care. The WHO is dedicated to collaborating with nations to enhance the provision of eye care, particularly through primary health care; to enhance health information systems for eye care; and to strengthen the workforce in the field of ophthalmology—three factors that are necessary for implementing integrated, person-centred eye care. But WHO can’t complete this mission by itself. To scale up integrated, person-centred eye care, international organisations, funders, and the public and commercial sectors must collaborate to provide the long-term funding and management capability. Millions of people today struggle with vision problems or blindness that, sadly, may have been avoided. While the precise figure is unknown, it is believed that glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and trachoma are responsible for 11.9 million cases of blindness, moderate visual impairment, or severe vision impairment worldwide.
It is estimated that it would have cost $5.8 billion to prevent vision impairment in these 11.9 million people. This constitutes a tremendous missed opportunity to reduce the enormous personal and societal hardship brought on by vision loss and blindness.
Kerala Academy of Pharmacy hope that by building on prior efforts, we can successfully tackle this challenge and assist nations in more effectively preventing eye diseases and visual impairment as well as providing high-quality eye care services in accordance with their populations’ needs.
