Chisinau's Day this year coincides with World Sight Day

World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness to focus global attention on blindness, visual impairment and rehabilitation of the visually impaired that is marked on the second Thursday in October. This year, it coincides with Chisinau's Day that is celebrated on October 14, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a communique, the Ministry of Health says up to 80% of cases of blindness are avoidable, either resulting from preventable conditions or being treatable so that sight is restored. The number of blind persons are expected to rise to 76 million by 2020. An estimated 300 million people worldwide are visually disabled. Of them, about 45 million persons are blind, including approximately 1 million children younger than 15. The incidence of visual impairment in Moldova last year was over 90 cases per 10,000 people. According to studies, women are more exposed to the risk of going blind than men, regardless of age. World Sight Day is observed around the world by all partners involved in preventing visual impairment or restoring sight. It is also the main advocacy event for the prevention of blindness and for "Vision 2020: The Right to Sight", a global effort to prevent blindness created by WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.