KARACHI - More than one billion people worldwide are living with vision impairment because they do not get the care they need for conditions like short and far sightedness, glaucoma and cataract.
According to a World Sight Day 2019’s report on vision issued by the World Health Organization ageing populations, changing lifestyles and limited access to eye care, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, are among the main drivers of the rising numbers of people living with vision impairment.
People who need eye care were recommended to be able to receive quality interventions without suffering financial hardship and for which countries must incorporate eye care in national health plans.
Essential packages of care were cited to an important part of every country’s journey towards universal health coverage.
Dr Tedros emphasized that it was unacceptable that 65 million people are blind or have impaired sight when their vision could have been corrected overnight with a cataract operation, or that over 800 million struggle in everyday activities because they lack access to a pair of glasses.
