World Sight Day: test your eye health knowledge

World Sight Day (13^th October) is an opportunity to draw attention to the importance of quality eye care for everyone, everywhere. The theme this year is: #LoveYourEyes.

More than one billion people worldwide are living needlessly with sight loss because they do not have access to eye health services. Half of all the world’s blindness is caused by cataracts, a condition that can be treated with straightforward surgery – and yet for too many people, sight-saving treatment is out of reach.

At CBM, we believe that everyone should have access to inclusive, accessible and affordable eye care wherever they live in the world. Thanks to our supporters, who share this commitment, we’re working to prevent blindness and restore sight across the world’s poorest places.

To mark World Sight Day, here is an eye health quiz to test your knowledge, learn more and help raise awareness about avoidable blindness…

1) How many people worldwide live with visual impairment that could be prevented or treated?

• 80 million
• 560 million
• 1 billion

2) Which country recently successfully eliminated the blinding eye infection Trachoma as a public health problem?

• Nigeria
• Malawi
• Ghana

3) What is the leading cause of blindness worldwide?

• Glaucoma
• Trachoma
• Cataracts

Click here to reveal the answers

Tackling avoidable blindness around the world

CBM works with local partners and health workers in the world’s poorest communities to prevent avoidable blindness and improve access to sight-saving eye health services. Last year, thanks to supporters like you, CBM Global:

• Treated 3.1m people for blinding diseases
• Carried out 111k sight-restoring cataract surgeries
• Provided 153k glasses and low vision devices

 World Sight Day Answers

1: Globally, at least 1 billion people live with a visual impairment that could have been prevented or treated.

CBM saves sight in the poorest places of the world by:

• Treating blinding diseases
• Enabling sight-restoring cataract surgery
• Training specialist doctors and health workers
• Supporting screening programmes

Find out more about our sight-saving work.

2: Malawi became the latest of 15 countries, including Ghana, to be validated by WHO for eliminating trachoma as a public health problem. Trachoma remains a public health problem in 42 countries, including in Nigeria.

CBM is working with communities in Nigeria to improve access to water and prevent diseases including trachoma. Read more about our trachoma work in Nigeria.  

3: Nearly half of the world’s blindness is caused by cataracts, even though cataracts can be treated with simple surgery and can cost as little as £24 for an adult or £95 for a child.

Last year, CBM reached 111,000 people with sight-restoring cataract surgery.

Main photo: Thanks to the generosity of CBM’s supporters, 5-year-old Sudip from Nepal had sight-saving cataract surgery and is now thriving at school, with his new glasses. Read Sudip’s story here.