NEARLY 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE WITH POOR EYESIGHT LIVE IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Oct 16 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. On the initiative of the World
Health Organization (WHO), starting 1998, the second Thursday of
October is marked as World Eyesight Day, the goal of which is to draw
public attention to problems of blindness and poor eyesight. As Noyan
Tapan correspondent was informed by the Office of the Armenian Ocular
Project, this year it was marked on October 11. The importance of
prevention of children’s blindness and eyesight problems was stressed
during the event.

Though more than 75% eyesight problems can be avoided by early
revelation, prevention or treatment of the disease, nevertheless,
the number of people with poor eyesight is rather large. Currently
124 million people suffer from poor eyesight in the world, and the
number such people in Armenia is nearly 50 thousand.

According to oculists’ observations, one among 4 school-age and 20
pre-school-age children has serious eyesight problems in Armenia,
which can cause loss of eyesight. Children mainly suffer from myopia,
long-sightedness, strabismus, cataract, glaucoma. Nearly 90% children’s
eye diseases are curable if diagnosed early.