14 October: World Sight Day

• 18 Oct 2021

• The World Sight Day is observed annually on the Second Thursday of October.
• The theme for World Sight Day 2021 is “Love your eyes”.
• Globally, at least 1 billion people have near or distance vision impairment that could be prevented or has yet to be addressed.
• Unoperated cataract and uncorrected refractive error are the leading causes of vision impairment. Other causes such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, infectious diseases of the eye, and trauma, however, cannot be ignored and need to be addressed.
• Recently at the 74th World Health Assembly, Member States adopted two new global targets for eye care by 2030̶a 40 per cent increase in effective coverage of refractive errors and a 30 per cent increase in effective coverage of cataract surgery.