On the second Thursday of October every year, the World Health Organization celebrates World Sight Day, in cooperation with all ministries of health around the world, believing in the importance of shedding light on many vision issues, raising awareness and improving treatment programs to maintain eye health.  

Overview about World Sight Day

Celebration of World Sight Day began in 1998, when the World Health Organization set the second Thursday of October as an annual date for this celebration, with the purpose of raising the necessary awareness to preserve the blessing of sight and prevent blindness. According to the latest statistics, at least 2.2 billion people around the world suffer from reduced visual acuity, or blindness, of whom at least one billion people suffer from poor vision that could be treated, at the same time, about 90% of people who suffer from blindness live in developing countries, while people with low vision are more than 50 years old.  

World Sight Day 2020

The World Health Organization stated that the two main causes of vision impairment are refractive defects and cataracts, which encourages the organization to set some main goals when celebrating World Sight Day 2020, in coordination with all concerned parties under the slogan "Toward a Better Vision". These goals included the following points:

• Increasing awareness of the importance of preventing blindness.
• Working to increase health awareness rates about the safety and health of the eyes by introducing all types of the most common eye diseases, as well as methods of prevention and treatment of them.
• Providing more access to comprehensive medical services for eye health.

 

The importance of early examination for eye diseases

Regular eye exams are one of the most important methods of prevention and preservation of eye health, which would avoid any development of some potential diseases, and a comprehensive eye examination is an uncomplicated medical procedure that does not take more than 90 minutes. Eye exams include the following aspects:

• The patient's health history.
• Visual acuity test.
• Examination of the pupil of the eye.
• Side field of view examination.
• Eye movement check.
• Check and measure eye pressure.
• Examination of the cornea of ​​the eye.
• Examination of the retina and optic nerve.

  The importance of conducting early eye examinations lies in avoiding the development of some eye diseases that do not have any obvious symptoms, thus, early treatment to avoid such problems. Eye diseases that do not have obvious symptoms include:

• Lazy eye is one of the most common diseases among children.
• Glaucoma disease.

 

When should an eye examination be performed?

Doctors recommend an eye examination in the following cases:

• For children

Children begin to have an eye exam from two to three years old.

• School-aged children and adolescents

Doctors recommend an eye examination for children before entering school in the first grade, provided that the examination is conducted once every year or two, in case that the child does not suffer from any symptoms and vision problems.

• For adults

In normal conditions, the examination begins for adults from the age of 40 years, provided that the examination is periodic after reaching this age, but the visual examination must be performed as indicated by age groups:

• • From 20 to 30 years old, it occurs once every 5 to 10 years.
  • From the age of 40 to 54 years, the examination takes place every two to four years.
  • From the age of 55 to 64 years, the examination should be done every year to three years.
  • Over the age of 65 years, the examination is carried out once to two years.

There are also some cases that must undergo an eye examination, such as:

• • People with myopia disease.
  • Diabetics, high blood pressure.
  • People with a family history.
  • People over the age of 65 years need periodic eye examinations once or twice a year, to avoid age-related eye diseases, such as cataracts, macular degeneration, and glaucoma.

 Also, read " What is Glaucoma? "  

Magrabi Hospitals and Community Responsibility

Believing in the importance of the role of social responsibility and charitable work, Magrabi Hospitals and Centers have placed this role on top of their priority, through their official channels represented by EBSAR Foundation and Magrabi Foundation, which work to provide medical service and health care in the field of ophthalmology at a reasonable cost suitable for all members of the community.  

EBSAR Foundation

EBSAR Foundation is one of the institutions affiliated with Magrabi Eye Centers, which has been established since 2002 with the aim of providing all means of support and rehabilitation for people with visual impairments, in addition to meeting all the needs of patients. These goals are as follows:

• Providing a specialized medical service for people with visual impairments, regardless of their physical and social conditions.
• Helping the visually impaired to remove any obstacles and overcome all the negative effects resulting from their health condition.

 

• Permanent work to provide full awareness to all sectors of society about the importance of humanitarian assistance for the visually impaired.
• Continuing to establish comprehensive awareness programs targeting most sectors of the society, which include how to positively deal with visual impairments, by introducing the disease, its causes, and how to deal with it

 

Magrabi Foundation

Magrabi Foundation is one of the charitable institutions in Egypt and the Middle East, which extends its services for more than 20 years, in the field of eye care, and works to provide distinguished medical services in the field of ophthalmology, to eliminate cases of blindness in society. Magrabi Foundation is keen to provide all means of medical care with the highest quality possible, in various forms, whether surgical or therapeutic, with high quality, through its branches, medical centers, or medical convoys that roam around Egypt, to provide detection and examination services, in the field of ophthalmology.  

Magrabi advice on International Sight Day

Sight is one of the blessings that God Almighty bestowed on His creatures on earth, which gives him the ability to continue in life properly and safely, so it is important to preserve this blessing and not always ignore its protection. On International Sight Day this year, Magrabi offers a set of preventive advice and methods to maintain eye health and safety. These tips include:

• Take care to eat healthy foods, by applying a healthy diet rich in vitamins and useful elements.
• The necessity to conduct periodic follow-up with the ophthalmologist once a year to ensure the health of the eye.
• Be sure to do some exercise to maintain the fitness of the body, and not to become obese or diabetes, because it is a cause of blindness.
• The necessity to avoid and quit smoking, especially since its harmful effects are among the causes of eye problems and diseases.