Spotlight on periodical eye check-ups to detect glaucoma

A ‘glaucoma awareness walk’ was organised from the Kali temple to YMCA, on the Beach Road here on Sunday.

Sai Yashwanth T., consultant ophthalmologist, Glaucoma, at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), GMRV campus, Visakhapatnam, exhorted the gathering on the importance of periodical eye check-ups to detect glaucoma in the early stages, and for better management to avoid blindness. Regular eye check-ups were all the more important for those with a family history of glaucoma.

Worldwide estimates put the figure for those with glaucoma at around 80 million. Approximately 50 per cent of them are unaware of it and this number may be even higher in underdeveloped countries. This is because glaucoma is asymptomatic, till a very late stage. If untreated, glaucoma may progress to blindness. Glaucoma, an eye problem associated with increased eye pressure, is called the ‘silent thief of vision’ because the vision once lost cannot be restored.

Glaucoma is the most common cause of irreversible blindness. One in every 200, aged 40 and above, and one in every eight, aged 80 and above, has glaucoma. Available statistics indicate that 1.12 crore Indians (4.5 per cent of the Indian population) suffer from glaucoma of which 11 lakh people have turned blind due to glaucoma.