THE POWER OF PREVENTION

Together we can fight many common causes of blindness

Vision loss has a huge impact on anyone that it touches, but what you may not know is that 90 per cent of blindness and low vision can be treated or prevented.

"Cataract, refractive error, macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and trachoma are some of the more common eye conditions that can cause blindness if left untreated," explains Dr May Ho, optometry and primary eye care advisor for the Fred Hollows Foundation.

The best way to stay protected is with regular eye tests. However, not everyone has this luxury and there are barriers that can prevent people from accessing eye health services.

"There are a range of risk factors linked to developing vision loss or blindness, and these can be biological, hereditary or environmental," explains Dr Ho.

CAUSES

"Half of the world's blindness and vision impairment is due to uncorrected distance refractive errors," says Dr Ho.

She adds that, "124 million people are blind or vision impaired simply because they do not have distance glasses. An additional 510 million people can't see well 'at near' because they don't have reading glasses."

TREATMENT