News and Events

NEI Statement

Statement from the National Eye Institute on World Sight Day 2007

National Institutes of Health
National Eye Institute

The National Eye Institute (NEI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) applauds World Sight Day 2007: VISION for Children. This international event will be observed on October 11, 2007. World Sight Day (WSD) is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October to draw the world's attention to the problem of blindness and vision impairment. The focus this year is on visual impairment and blindness among some of the world's most vulnerable citizens - children.

"World Sight Day illustrates the worldwide commitment to the prevention of vision loss and blindness through early detection, treatment, and rehabilitation," said Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., director of NIH. "NIH has been and continues to be instrumental in supporting and encouraging international vision research that complements the efforts of World Sight Day."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO):

A child goes blind every minute.
An estimated 1.4 million children are blind worldwide and millions more are visually impaired.
About 75 percent of blindness is avoidable through prevention or treatment.
Up to 90 percent of blind children miss out on educational, social, and developmental opportunities and fail to reach their full potential.

Worldwide, major causes of visual impairment and blindness in children vary widely from region to region. Higher prevalence of childhood blindness is associated with low socioeconomic status, high infant mortality rates, and the lack of primary health care services.

In the United States and other industrialized countries hereditary diseases of the retina and uncorrected refractive errors (nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism) are significant causes of visual impairment. Among 12 to 19 year-olds who are visually impaired, 93 percent have visual impairment from uncorrected refractive errors. These conditions can be readily remedied by providing corrective lenses.

NEI has supported and conducted research over many years on childhood eye conditions and diseases such as lazy eye (amblyopia), cross-eyes (strabismus), refractive errors, retinopathy of prematurity (a blinding retinal disorder in premature infants), Stargardt's disease (early-onset macular degeneration), congenital cataract, and others.

"NEI is dedicated to promoting visual health domestically and internationally," said Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., director of NEI. "Our research continues to lead the way in expanding scientific understanding of childhood eye diseases and contributes to the development of preventive and therapeutic programs such as those highlighted during World Sight Day."

NEI supports and encourages international research and collaborations by:

Funding clinical trials on infectious eye diseases in other countries
Negotiating official agreements such as the United States-India Statement of Intent for collaboration on expansion of vision research
Helping numerous countries build the capacity to assess the types and prevalence of visual impairment, establish programs for reducing health care disparities, and deliver eye care services in rural and urban settings.

WSD is organized by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) as part of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight. VISION 2020 is a joint initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO), IAPB, and an international coalition of non-governmental organizations, professional associations, eye care institutions and corporations. The goal of VISION 2020 is to eliminate avoidable blindness worldwide by the year 2020. Avoidable blindness is blindness that is preventable or treatable.

VISION 2020 emphasizes that vigilance and early intervention against blinding conditions are crucial for the elimination of childhood blindness. WSD provides an opportunity to promote healthy vision in neighborhoods and communities with programs at the local, state, national and international levels.

For more information on World Sight Day 2007: VISION for Children, go to: http://www.v2020.org/page.asp?section=000100010007.

For more detailed information on worldwide childhood blindness, educational and social services, and community-based vision rehabilitation programs, see the June 2007 issue of the Community Eye Health Journal at: http://www.jceh.co.uk/.

For more information on NEI research, go to: http://www.nei.nih.gov/neitrials/all-alpha.aspx

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The National Eye Institute (NEI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is the Federal government's lead agency for vision research that leads to sight-saving treatments and plays a key role in reducing visual impairment and blindness. For more information, visit the NEI Website at http://www.nei.nih.gov/.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) - The Nation's Medical Research Agency - includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov/.