World Sight Day is observed on the second Thursday of October every year. The event is aimed at drawing global attention on vision impairment and blindness and was originally initiated by the SightFirstCampaign of Lions Club International Foundation in 2000.

The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) coordinates World Sight Day under the VISION 2020 Global Initiative. The agency decides the theme and generates the core content for each year’s World Sight Day. A coalition of international, non-governmental and private organisations, the VISION 2020 Global Initiative aims to eliminate avoidable blindness as a public health problem by the year 2020.

The IAPB mentions these as the objectives of World Sight Day:

1. Raising public awareness of blindness and vision impairment as major international public health issues

2. Influencing Governments/Ministers of Health to participate in and designate funds for national blindness prevention programmes

3. Educating target audiences about blindness prevention, about VISION 2020 and to generate support for VISION 2020 programme activities

The World Sight Day 2019, held on October 10, had the "Vision First" theme. Last year, the World Sight Day was celebrated on October 11, 2018. According to the IAPB, 149 countries held events to mark the day in 2018.

Blindness and vision impairment

According to a WHO report, at least 2.2 billion people suffer from a vision impairment or blindness. Of these, one billion have a vision impairment that could have been prevented, or is yet to be addressed.

In terms of regional differences, the prevalence of distance vision impairment in low- and middle-income regions is estimated to be four times higher than in high-income regions.

Leading causes of vision impairment:

Uncorrected refractive errors
Cataract
Age-related macular degeneration
Glaucoma
Diabetic retinopathy
Corneal opacity
Trachoma

World Sight Day

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