Visual prevention, care and rehabilitation: a heritage to be guaranteed for all.
On the occasion of the World Sight Day 2017which is celebrated on 12 October 2017 around the world, the IAPB Italy onlus promotes free initiatives in a hundred or so Italian cities, with distribution of information material, informative meetings, and free eye check-ups.
Sight is the most important sense because it allows us to gather information from the environment beyond the 80%.
However, this statement, to which everyone agrees, is not matched by a health practice that allows people who have no vision problems to undergo eye examinations with some regularity.
The latest estimates that the World Health Organisation is working on regarding sight deficits, which have not yet been published, report the quantity and distribution in different areas of the planet: worldwide there are 227 million people with severe low vision and are 25 million blind people for non-curable diseases.
In Italy the blind are estimated to be approximately 362,000 e approximately one and a half million visually impaired people.
The number of people with an eye disease that prompts them to seek and receive ophthalmological or refractive (spectacle) care would be in the order of 3 billion, who must be guaranteed access to quality care in time to protect their sight.
That is why for many years theInternational Agency for the Prevention of Blindness-IAPB Italy onlus seeks to make information on eye diseases, treatments and services available to everyone. In short, it strives to make the prevention and treatment of eye diseases, as well as visual rehabilitation, accessible to all.
World Sight Day, celebrated on the second Thursday in October, is the most important time to remind institutions and the public that sight is a precious asset that must always be protected.
For more details visit http://www.iapb.it/gmv2017/iniziative.php
Dr. Carmelo Chines
Direttore responsabile
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Italian