Much of the World's Blindness Is Preventable

AllAfrica reports that "Minister of Health Professor Christian Onyebuchi Chukwu yesterday said over one million Nigerians are blind while another three million are visually impaired," which is how World Sight Day started in Nigeria. The minister noted "over 50 percent of children become blind before they get to the age of five....He said the national blindness and low vision survey carried out between 2005 and 2007 revealed that 'Over 80 percent of the causes of blindness in Nigeria are avoidable. 50 percent of avoidable blindness is attributable to cataract, followed by glaucoma (16 percent), corneal opacity (12 percent), trachoma (4 percent), optic Atrophy (3 percent) and refractive error being the major cause of visual impairment.'" Read more.