World Sight Day illuminates humanity’s blindness
Posted by Guest on October 8th 2009 in Cross-postThis is a Cross-Post from The Minnesota Daily
French archaeologist Paul Veyne struck proverbial gold when he quipped, “When one does not see what one does not see, one does not even see that one is blind.â€
In the great spirit of enlightenment and awareness, one should know that today, October 8, is World Sight Day. Even in this great age of progress, with all humanity’s power of knowledge, technology and medicine, simple blindness still hinders many. According to the World Health Organization, there are 314 million people living with low vision and blindness. Even more appalling, 80 percent of blindness is preventable or treatable.
Vision 2020, an advocate for this annual awareness event, states that these current numbers are actually a drastic improvement compared to past years. In 1985 the number of people affected by blinding trachoma was roughly 70 percent higher than it is today. But this major reduction cannot stop here, as the group also claims that if major intervention in the situation does not continue to take place, the current number of people with blindness will almost double in 10 years.
Cataracts and trachoma are two of the most common causes of impaired vision, and parts of the extended list of ailments that Vision 2020 aims to eliminate entirely by the year 2020.
They believe they will be able to follow through with this plan by implementing a combination of three different elements: cost effective disease control, human resource development and the use of infrastructure and technology.
The goal of eliminating preventable blindness and the steps that Vision 2020 has outlined are commendable, but another part of me is always skeptical of such lofty goals. I feel like if I’ve never heard of these harsh realities, neither have a lot of other people. Wouldn’t it be hard to end a world crisis without the help of the public donating and acting as advocates? But on the other hand, the progress already made is indisputable, and this was done largely under the radar.
Yet, in addition to the work being done by Vision 2020, there are a number of other organizations contributing to the aim as well. ORBIS International, a fully equipped teaching hospital operating within a traveling airplane, has made great strides in treating avoidable blindness. Since 1982, they have directly treated 9.2 million patients with blindness-related illnesses. In addition, they have also trained more than 234,000 ophthalmologists, nurses, biomedical engineers and other health care workers to aid in the treatment and prevention of sightlessness. With some optimism, these advocates will be able to reduce the scourge of blindness among children, as well. Read the rest of this entry »






