BANGALORE: For them, life is a blur. Even as World Sight Day is observed on Thursday, those who tread the grey area between total blindness and perfect sight struggle to lead a productive life.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has chosen "Low Vision and Refractive Error" as the theme for this year's World Sight Day. It is focussing on preventable blindness and early detection. People with low vision are often identified as blind and many do not have access to rehabilitation services for their specific needs.

According to the WHO, a low-vision person is one who "has a significant visual handicap and also usable residual vision." The main causes of low vision may be cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy (eye problem caused by diabetes), macular degeneration and genetic diseases.

In 2002, more than 161 million people across the world were visually impaired. Of this, 124 million people had low vision and 37 million were blind. Worldwide, for each blind person, there is an average of 3.4 people with low vision.

Except for the most developed countries, cataract remains the leading cause of blindness in all regions of the world. "Even though many forms of blindness are preventable and low vision problems can be treated, in the rural areas, lack of support groups and access to health services leads to people not being aware that this can be prevented," Subhash M., a visually impaired person, said.

"For example, people in villages may not know that giving leafy green vegetables and fruits may prevent a child from developing blindness. Night blindness, one of the major problems among those with low vision, can be treated with Vitamin A drops. There is a need to disseminate such important information among villagers," he said.

Arun Samprathi, consultant paediatric ophthalmologist, Narayana Nethralaya, said: "A child's eye matures in the first eight years of life and whether the child will develop short sight and long sight is determined in those years. If effective interventions are made early and eye examinations done regularly, problems of low vision and subsequent blindness can be prevented."

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