There are 4.5 million visually impaired people in the world and in 80% cases blindness was caused by a condition that was completely preventable. Around one third of the world's visually impaired population is in India which makes it important for the country to check its national burden of blindness. A huge contributor to the problem is lack of proper facilities and expertise in rural India.
At present, above 1,500 visually impaired people are waiting for their turn for cornea transplantation at the Advanced Eye Centre(AEC), PGI. There is a glaring gap between the number of donors and recipients in the city, the common reason behind which is little awareness about eye donation. As many as 1,525 corneal blind patients are in the waiting list of AEC. Per year about 350 eye donations take place, however, the required number should be at least 1,000 donations per year.
Washington: Scientists have revealed that a new oral medication is showing significant progress in restoring vision to patients with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA).
According to scientists of Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), this is the first time that an oral drug has improved the visual function of blind patients with LCA, which causes visual impairment ranging from reduced vision to complete blindness, has remained untreatable.
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ndia should tap the mega economic opportunity in the disability sector by allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment in it to manufacture products for the specially-abled population, an influential Indian-American activist has said.
This partnership may help alleviate the main contributor to disabilities in South Africa - blindness. About 80% of the visually impaired population live in rural areas, according to stats from the SA National Council for the Blind.
Fact: 80% of blindness and visual impairment is treatable, according to Professor Colin Cook, head of the University of Cape Town's division of ophthalmology.
Avoidable blindness will now be tackled by the university following their new partnership with the Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium.
Japanese men with higher blood pressure were more likely to have impaired color vision, a new study has found.
Researchers said that for now, it’s not clear what explains the findings.
According to Dr. Saadia Rashid, damage to certain parts of the eye that occurs as a result of high blood pressure could ultimately lead to vision loss. It’s possible that impaired color vision could be a sign of future problems related to high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, said Rashid, an ophthalmologist from Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
Two Indian eye care majors – the Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, and the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad – are among eleven expert institutions chosen from across the world to combat preventable blindness in the Commonwealth.
"My mother has lost vision in one eye and the other is causing her big problems," says one boy. "She can't see where she's going."
Another child says her grandmother is blind in both eyes and is forever pulling out her eyelashes. "She rubs and rubs them," explains the nine-year-old girl. "They give her terrible pain."
Solicitor Toby Stroh and former barrister Jonathan Wyatt are among the patients who took part in a gene therapy trial that has helped to save them from blindness
Thousands of people suffering from common forms of blindness could have their sight restored under a pioneering new treatment.
Researchers at Oxford University have discovered that by replacing a missing gene into the retina they can prevent cells from degenerating. The aim is to treat a progressive blindness called choroideremia.
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