Blindness and Vision Impairment

Abstract

Blindness is the ultimate stage of vision loss on both eyes and represents a major public health problem affecting at least 1.1 billion people worldwide. The major and leading causes of blindness and vision loss include uncorrected refractive errors, cataract, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy, with low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) disproportionately more affected. Blindness and visual loss have a significant human and social impact, often leading to reduced quality of life, social marginalization, and premature death among those affected. Similarly, their economic and financial impact are just as devastating, leading among others to huge productivity losses estimated at US$410 billion annually. While vision loss is still growing, and disproportionately much faster than existing service delivery can cope, especially in LMIC, solutions and cost-effective strategies to address that increase are available. What is urgently needed now is a renewed, upscaled, and coordinated efforts at global, regional, and country levels, using the new tools recently developed by WHO and its partners.