Why it matters

REDUCE BURDEN OF BLINDNESS

Over 285 million people in the world are visually impaired
Globally, about 85% of all visual impairment and 75% of blindness could be prevented or cured worldwide
Every minute a child somewhere in the world goes blind
Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness and visual impairment among people aged 65 and older
Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in persons ages 20-74

It is estimated that over 4 million Americans have glaucoma but only half of those know they have it
Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world, according to the World Health Organization.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness among African Americans
African Americans ages 45-65 are 14 to 17 times more likely to go blind from glaucoma than Caucasians with glaucoma in the same age group
Other high-risk groups include: people over 60, family members of those already diagnosed, diabetics, and people who are severely nearsighted

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness and visual impairment among people aged 65 and older. As the population ages, AMD is becoming a more significant public health problem
Approximately 9.1 million people in the United States older than 40 suffer from AMD
Women are slightly more likely than men to develop AMD
Worldwide, 2.5 million people experience vision loss due to diabetic retinopathy
An estimated 100,000 people in the U.S. have retinitis pigmentosa (RP)
Most people with RP are legally blind by age 40
Stargardt disease is the most common form of inherited juvenile macular degeneration

According to the World Health Organization (2010), Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the world.
Cataract results in blindness for 17.6 million people worldwide

Worldwide, vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of childhood blindness, responsible for an estimated 70% of the 500,000 children who become blind each year
More than 12 million children ages 5 to 15 are visually impaired due to uncorrected refractive errors as a result of near-sightedness, far-sightedness, or astigmatism
In the United States, one out of 20 preschooler aged children will have a vision problem that affects their ability to learn

Uveitis can be caused by any number of infectious diseases of the eye, certain autoimmune diseases, reactions to some medications taken for other conditions, or exposure to toxins, about 50 percent of cases have no known cause
Uveitis is responsible for about 10 percent of all cases of blindness in the U.S.
Trachoma affects about 84 million people of whom 8 million are visually impaired
Trachoma is highly contagious and occurs mainly in children between ages three and six

Amblyopia is a leading cause of visual impairment in children, occurring in 5% of the population.

Approximately 2,200 new cases of ocular cancers occur in the U.S. each year. Most are in people over 50, but children can also be affected
Retinoblastoma (cancer of the retina) is the most common eye tumor in children, usually occurring before the age of two and almost always before age five.

About 80% of blindness is avoidable (preventable or curable), and 90% of the world’s blind live in a developing country
South East Asia and Western Pacific account for 73% of moderate to severe visual impairment and 58% of blindness
The data indicate that the predominant causes of blindness among children in the poorest countries of the world include: corneal scarring due to vitamin A deficiency, measles infection, ophthalmia neonatorum, and the effects of harmful traditional eye remedies