Tomorrow, Thursday 9 October 2014, is World Sight Day (WSD). WSD is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. Under the theme “Universal Eye Health”, the ‘call to action’ for World Sight Day this year is “No more avoidable blindness”. On World Sight Day nations work together to:

    raise public awareness of blindness & vision impairment as major international public health issues
    influence Governments/Ministers of Health to participate in and designate funds for national blindness prevention programmes
    educate target audiences about blindness prevention, about Vision 2020 and to generate support for Vision 2020 programme activities.

Approximately 285 million people worldwide live with low vision and blindness. Of these, 39 million people are blind and 246 million have moderate or severe visual impairment. 90% of blind people live in low income countries, yet 80% of visual impairment is avoidable - i.e. readily treatable and/or preventable.

Restorations of sight and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in health care. So far, the number of people blind from infectious causes has greatly reduced in the past 20 years. About 65 % of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this age group comprises only 20% of the world's population. With regard to children, an estimated 19 million are visually impaired, and increasing elderly populations in many countries mean that more people will be at risk of age-related visual impairment.

As part of various Eye Care Month commemoration activities, the Deputy Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla will visit the Mankweng Hospital’s Ophthalmology unit on Tuesday, 14 October 2014, where Dr Kgaogelo Legodi and his team will be performing cataract surgeries in a bid to invigorate the “Vision 2020” programme which is aimed at curtailing the waiting list of cataract surgery in the country. Dr Legodi is the President of the Ophthalmology Society of South Africa, International Council of Ophthalmology Advisor and a leading eye specialist.

‘Public awareness of blindness and vision impairment is the starting point to enliven the “Vision 2020” programme, and initiatives like the one taken by Dr Legodi and his team are vital in bringing the waiting list numbers of cataract surgery down in our hospitals’, said Dr Joe Phaahla.

Media contact:
Khutso Rabothata
Tel: 012 395 8481
Cell: 072 992 7171
E-mail: rabots@health.gov.za /ksrabothata@gmail.com

Issued by: Department of Health