Vision companies and eye care professionals embraced World Sight Day 2015 last week by raising awareness of public eye health globally and backing new research in the sector.
During the annual event, held on October 8, optics set out to position blindness and vision impairment as major international public health issues.
French lens firm Essilor Group used its global brand ambassadors, including US actor Kat Graham and Spanish model Nieves Alvarez, to ‘raise the flag for better vision’.
It pointed out that poor vision affected billions globally, with 4.5 billion people needing vision correction but 2.5 billion of them not benefitting from any solution to correct their eyesight.
Essilor released an infographic to mark the day, showing that while 80 per cent of what children learn is acquired through visual information, 30 per cent of them had vision problems. A total 23 per cent of drivers worldwide had uncorrected vision problems.
Meanwhile, variable focus eyewear manufacturer Adlens marked World Sight Day 2015 by joining forces with Fight for Sight to fund new eye research. Adlens has pledged to donate 7.5% of all instant eyewear sales to its charity partners, including Fight for Sight, up until the end of 2015.
Dr Graeme MacKenzie, director of industry and regulatory affairs at Adlens, said: ‘With promising developments in stem cell advances and gene therapy, it has never been a more exciting time for eye research and there are huge opportunities for scientists – if they have the funding required.
‘Fight for Sight has a remarkable history of scientific breakthroughs and we hope our support will allow more scientists to make life-changing discoveries in eye research.’
