150,000 Sri Lankans Are Living With Blindness

Out of Sri Lanka's  Twenty Million Population ,One hundrad Fifty Thousand people(150,000) are living  with Blindness according to the Health Ministry.Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Health Dr P.G Mahipala said today that major cause of this Blindness is due to Cataract.If the people who are having somekind of Eye Disorder go to a Opthamalogist(Eye Specialist) in  early stages and getting treatment this kind of Blindness can be preventable he stressed.

Speeking at the Seminar Organized by the Health Education Bureau in Colombo today  Dr.Mahipala said that among the Sri Lanka's blind People 100,000 are Blind due to Cataract ,6000 due to Diabetese and 15,000 are due to  Glucoma.Out of these Blind People 80 percent can be curable.Other then Cataract other main causes that can leed to Blindness are Glucoma,Cataract  and Childhood Blindness according to the Opthamalogists.

According to them there are 400,000 Sri Lankans  who are having low vision and 160,000 School Children who are suffering with some kind of Eye Disorder.World Sight Day falls on    14th of October and the Ministry of Health has  launched a programme called Vision 2020
with the aim of preventing Blindness among Sri Lankans by the year 2020.