Blindness More and more people around the world are losing their sight

Increase in blindness - many cases could be avoided

Vision problems, including blindness, will increase significantly in the future according to experts. After decades of declining case numbers, a significant increase in blindness is expected in the future, warns the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). In addition to the demographic development, factors such as the use of smartphones and working on the screen could also have an impact on development.

Worldwide, more and more blindness is noted, the IAPB warns in a recent press release on the occasion of the "World Sight Day". In particular, the cases of avoidable loss of vision are in the opinion of experts to evaluate critically. Medicine threatens to be overrun by the problems, "unless we act now," the IAPB conclusion on the findings of the "Sight Atlas" published in the journal Lancet Global Health.

After decades of falling case numbers, the blindness in the opinion of experts will increase significantly in the future again. (Image: Peterchen / fotolia.com)

Millions of visually impaired people

According to the latest results, 36 million blind people and 217 million people with moderate to severe visual impairment live worldwide. Of the 253 million sufferers, 124 million have uncorrected ametropia and 65 million have a cataract, so that 75 percent of vision loss and visual impairment are preventable, reports the IAPB. Because cataracts can operate successfully and correct the defective vision with technical means. Other common causes of vision loss, according to the researchers, are age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma (Green Star).

Increase by 2020

The current analysis also answers the question of whether the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of reducing preventable vision loss by 25% by 2019 is still achievable. However, the experts do not assume. Instead, an increase in the prevalence of preventable visual disabilities by 5.6 percent is to be expected. In the long term, an even more dramatic increase in the number of people affected is forecasted. Dr. Astrid Bonfield, executive director of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, said in her statement that the number of blind people will triple by 2050 due to an aging population, increasing diabetes and increased myopia.

New "era of blindness"

According to IAPB experts, after decades of improvement, the world is facing a new "era of blindness". "We have made significant progress in reducing avoidable blindness in recent years, but the new data in the Atlas of Sight shows that we must redouble our efforts to prevent the predicted increase in blindness and visual impairment," the researchers say.

Positive development of the past decades

The prevalence of total vision loss and vision impairment has dropped from 4.58 percent in 1990 to 3.37 percent in 2015, according to the latest survey, but will reverse in the coming decades. In addition, 89 percent of the visually impaired live in low- and middle-income countries, where there is a correspondingly poorer supply situation. In the future, however, the situation will not only sharply worsen in these countries unless comprehensive countermeasures are initiated, the experts say. (Fp)