Global blindness was slowing prior to pandemic study reveals

In 2021 the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness’s Vision Atlas was launched—this remains the most-up-to-date resource for eye health data.

The report reveals that globally there are 43 million people living with blindness and 295 million people living with moderate-to-severe visual impairment. Out of these, a huge 77% is completely preventable or treatable.

This means that 33 million people are living with blindness and a further 260 million with visual impairment that is moderate to severe—simply because they lack access to appropriate care.

When you include all forms of vision loss beyond moderate-to-severe, conditions like myopia and other uncorrected problems that most people will experience in their lifetime, the figure becomes 90%. That equates to one billion people on this planet, living with vision loss from avoidable causes.

90% of these people live in low- and middle-income countries, and 55% are women and girls. The majority of these people only need a small intervention, like a pair of reading glasses, to correct their vision.

The good news is that the eye health community has a proven track record of getting results. Back in 2017 The Lancet Global Health reported that avoidable blindness figures were set to triple—to an indefensible 115 million people by 2050.

The latest data published in the same journal shows that by 2050 the world is likely to have around 60 million people living with blindness. This is a huge reduction in the original estimate and a great testament to the hard work of the eye care community—including Orbis and our wonderful volunteers, partners and supporters – to offset the projected tripling!

But there is still much work to do. As people live longer lives and the world’s population grows—and other trends like lifestyle changes and decreasing infant mortality rates lead to increases in conditions such as diabetic retinopathy, myopia and retinopathy of prematurity—we are seeing a growing number of people with sight-threatening conditions who need eye care.

The data outlined in the report were collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The eye health community does not yet fully know the extent of the delays in treatment—but it could offset some of these gains.

Many of our partners had to divert resources to fight the pandemic, only tending to the most critical cases. Anecdotal reports suggest there is still a global backlog of urgent eye care and a need to increase investment, resources, and training.

Our teams have been working round-the-clock to limit the impact of the pandemic—continuing to provide top-class training to our partners via our online platform Cybersight and through VIRTUAL Flying Eye Hospital training projects.

As the world began to reopen, our teams were poised to provide in-person training as part of our ‘blended’ approach (a mix of online and hands-on training) and worked side-by-side with our partners to build resources and help deal with this global backlog.

“It’s becoming clear that the pandemic has created a growing need for improved eye care and we’re doing all we can to support our partners with the training and resources they need,” Hunter adds.

“I would like to thank the Orbis community for all their support during the pandemic, and we’re going to need it more than ever in the years ahead.”

We’re confident that with your support we’ll be able to help jump start the post-pandemic recovery, ensuring people around the world can get the care they need and deserve.