The Healthy Eye
- 19
- Feb
My eyes are my favorite part of me; not for how they look, but for how they see.
I agree with the above quote by Frau Feuerameise.
The eye is an extension of the brain . It is a special sensory organ that gives us the sense of sight, which makes us appreciate our environment more than the other four senses (hear, smell, touch and taste). The eyes are not only there to see, but you can view the body through the eyes.
They reveal emotions and up to 200 types of illnesses from all parts of the body present with eye involvement. Indeed, the Holy Bible affirms that
“The light of the body is the eye” (Holy Bible: Matthew 6: 22).
In order for the eye to see well, it must have normal development, clear media, healthy optic nerves and brain. The blood vessels must be healthy to supply blood to all parts of the eye and the brain. Both eyes must be well aligned, with adequate motility for binocular single vision.
Visual impairment and blindness
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘low vision’ is defined as visual acuity of less than 6/18 but equal to or better than 3/60 (Counting Fingers at 3 meters), or a corresponding visual field loss to less than 20° of fixation, in the better eye with the best possible correction. Blindness is a visual acuity of less than 3/60, or a corresponding visual field loss to less than 10° of fixation, in the better eye with the best possible correction.
Magnitude of visual impairment and blindness
Figure 2 shows the magnitude of visual impairment worldwide, from World Health Organization estimates.
The key facts are, that:
- Worldwide, 285 million people are visually impaired: 39 million of these are blind in both eyes and 246 million have low vision.
- About 9 out of 10 people who are visually impaired live in low-income settings.
- Eight out of 10 people living with blindness are aged 50 years and above.
- 80% of all visual impairment is avoidable (i.e. can be prevented or cured)
- Every 5 seconds, someone becomes blind.
- Every 1 minute, a child becomes blind (WHO, 2015) In Nigeria, according to the reports of the National survey on blindness conducted on adults aged 40 years and above, at least 4 out of 100 (4%) people are blind. Extrapolation from that study estimates that at least 1 million Nigerians are blind, and another 3 million are visually impaired (Kyari et al, 2009).
Global vision loss and blindness (WHO, 2015).