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Did you know that 80 percent of all blindness is avoidable?¹ Or, that more than 800 million people worldwide are impacted in their daily lives by the effects of blindness, severe vision impairment or near vision sight loss?^1,5 Or, that the sight restoration and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in health care?¹

Global Statistics on Blindess & Vision Impairment

Blindness & Visual Impairment by the Numbers

• Approximately 800 million people worldwide are blind, severely visually impaired or have near vision sight loss according to estimates by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness^1,5
• Of these, 45 million people are blind and 269 million are significantly visually impaired¹; an additional 517 million people require spectacles for reading and other close up activities⁵
• Approximately 80 percent of blindness is avoidable, i.e., treatable and/or preventable¹
• 145 million people have low vision due to uncorrected refractive errors.¹ In most cases, normal vision could be restored with eye glasses or contact lenses
• Regular eye exams, glasses or contact lenses could transform the lives of millions of people

The People Affected

• Women face a significantly greater risk of vision loss than men: two-thirds of blind people worldwide are women and girls¹
• Ninety percent of blind people live in low-income countries, many of the very poorest people in the world are blind or significantly visually impaired¹
• About 82 percent of all people who are visually impaired are age 50 and older²
• More than 12 million children ages five to 15 are visually impaired because of uncorrected refractive errors, conditions that could be easily diagnosed and corrected with glasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery²

Looking to the Future

• Infectious causes of blindness are decreasing as a result of public health interventions¹
• Aging populations and lifestyle changes mean that chronic blinding conditions such as diabetic retinopathy are projected to rise exponentially¹
• Without effective, major intervention, the number of blind people worldwide has been projected to increase to 76 million by 2020¹

Causes of Blindess and Visual Impairment

Four Levels of Visual Function²

Leading Causes of Blindness (in order)

• Cataract: a clouding of the lens of the eye that impedes the passage of light²
• Uncorrected refractive errors: myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), or astigmatism²
• Glaucoma: a group of diseases that result in damage of the optic nerve²
• Age-related macular degeneration: involves the loss of a person's central field of vision²

Other Major Causes

• Corneal opacities: eye diseases that scar the cornea²
• Diabetic retinopathy: associated with diabetes²
• Blinding trachoma: bacterial condition causing painful scarring in the cornea²
• Eye conditions in children such as cataract, retinopathy of prematurity, and vitamin A deficiency²
• Onchocerciasis (river blindness): a parasitic disease caused by filarial worms and transmitted through the bites of infected blackflies ³

Refractive Errors

A refractive error is a common eye disorder that can sometimes be so severe that it causes visual impairment.⁴ It occurs when the eye cannot clearly focus on images resulting in blurred vision.⁴

The three most common refractive errors are:

• Myopia (nearsightedness): difficulty seeing distant objects clearly⁴
• Hyperopia (farsightedness): difficulty seeing close objects clearly⁴
• Astigmatism: distorted vision due to an irregularly curved cornea (the clear covering of the eye)⁴

A fourth condition, presbyopia, leads to difficulty reading or seeing at arm's length.⁴ Presbyopia is due to age-related changes inside the eye and is universal among people over the age of 40.⁴ This condition is linked to aging.⁴

Refractive errors cannot be prevented but they can be diagnosed by an eye exam and treated with corrective glasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery.⁴

CIBA VISION and the CIBA VISION logo are trademarks of Novartis AG. ©2010 CIBA VISION Corporation, a Novartis AG company.
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¹ VISION 2020: The Right to Sight Blindness and Vision Impairment Global Facts, http://www.vision2020.org/main.cfm?type=FACTS, (Updated April 1, 2010)
² World Health Organization, Visual Impairment and Blindness Fact Sheet N°282, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/ (Updated May 2009)
³ World Health Organization, Onchocerciasis, http://www.who.int/topics/onchocerciasis/en/ (Updated May 2009)
⁴ World Health Organization, What is A Refractive Error Online Q&A, http://www.who.int/features/qa/45/en/index.html (Updated May 2009)
⁵ Brian Holden Vision Institute, Global Eye Care Needs, http://www.brienholdenvision.org/resources/global-eye-care-needs.html