World Health and Vision

Explore global eyesight challenges and learn how to answer IELTS Reading question types.

How to use this lesson

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the official health agency of the United Nations. In a fact sheet published in 2026, the WHO reported that at least 2.2 billion people across the world live with an eyesight problem, whether for seeing objects near or far away. What is most surprising is that for at least 1 billion of these people, their vision condition could have been prevented in the first place or still needs proper care.

According to the WHO, the two main causes of poor eyesight everywhere are refractive errors and cataracts. Refractive errors make things look blurry, while cataracts cause the eye lens to become cloudy. Luckily, both problems can be treated easily. The organization points out that buying glasses for refractive errors and performing simple surgical operations for cataracts are among the best value for money of all health care services.

However, getting the right eye care depends heavily on where a person lives. The WHO highlights a big inequality between different parts of the world. In low-income countries, 2 out of 3 people who need a simple pair of glasses are currently unable to get them. This means millions of people suffer unnecessarily simply because basic eye services are unavailable or out of reach.

To draw more attention to this global problem, the WHO published its first World report on vision in 2019. This important report revealed that more than 800 million people around the world struggle with everyday activities because they cannot get a pair of glasses. Without clear sight, daily tasks like reading, working, and traveling safely become a real challenge for many.

Practice Exercises

Complete all 8 IELTS-style questions below based on the reading passage.