
Without intervention, the number of individuals with blindness mightreach 76 million by 2020 because of a number of factors, primarily the rapidaging of populations in most countries.

1 Mostof them have lost their sight to diseases that are treatable or preventable.Eighty percent of them live in the lesser-developed world in countries wherechronic economic deprivation is exacerbated by the added challenge of failingvision.

