One Billion People Have Preventable Eye Conditions, Increasingly Linked to Lifestyle Choices, According to WHO

A child receives treatment in the northeastern district of Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS By External SourceGENEVA, Oct 8 2019 (IPS) A staggering 2.2 billion people already suffer from eye conditions and visual impairment today, but the global need for eye care is set to increase “dramatically”, with lack of exercise a key factor, the UN health agency said on Tuesday, unveiling its first ever report on vision across the world. While welcoming recent successes in eliminating common conditions such as trachoma in eight countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted evidence indicating that eye problems are increasingly linked to lifestyle choices, including screen time. Youngsters are among those at risk, WHO’s Dr Alarcos Cieza told journalists in Geneva: “It is 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” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General “In children, one of the factors that may influence the increased number of children with myopia, is that children do not spend enough time outdoors. It is a trend that is already observed in some countries like in China”, he said. “But of course, it is a trend that we can predict in other countries if they are an everyday habit, especially with child populations.”  ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Global Headlines Health TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news