World Glaucoma Awareness Week
As World Glaucoma Awareness Week begins to be celebrated from March 6th to 12th, 2022, we look at the problem of glaucoma that faces India. As a country of more than 1.25 billion, there are now expected to be about 11.27 million people with glaucoma. 95% of them do not know that they have glaucoma.
What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is a disease of the optic nerve in the eye which causes decreased vision and irreversible blindness. As World Glaucoma Week begins to be celebrated from March 6th to 12th, 2022, we look at the problem of glaucoma that faces India.
As a country of more than 1.25 billion, there are now expected to be about 11.27 million people with glaucoma. 95% of them do not know that they have glaucoma.
Did you know?
70% of the glaucoma is in rural areas and is almost all undiagnosed. More than 90% of glaucoma subjects are potentially under the threat of visual impairment and blindness. A sight that is so common is end-stage cupping in our rural community patients that are brought in for sight restoration from cataracts. This is the hallmark of rural glaucoma. The threat of rapid blindness in Primary Angle Closure Glaucoma is even more significant.
World Glaucoma Week #glaucomaweek
World Glaucoma Week was designed to address this problem. Therefore the World Glaucoma Week is even more significant for a country like India, where we are aware of our limitations in addressing the issues of awareness, issues of early diagnosis and also that of affordability, accessibility and, therefore, eventually of ‘holistic management.
The great push that is required is to get the patient to come to the doctor or get the doctor to go to the patient. Proactive efforts at reaching out to the patient and diagnosing glaucoma are in evolution. Unless we make our eye health systems more accessible to the communities, there will be no other way except to look at accessing our patients and identifying means of diagnosing our glaucoma subjects.
Who are at higher risk of suffering from glaucoma?
All persons above 40 years need to be tested for glaucoma as it is expected after 40 years. There are certain people that are at risk for glaucoma; they are age 40 yrs, a family member having glaucoma, trauma to the eye, long term steroid intake, high myopia, and certain medications that can cause glaucoma.
What are warning signs of glaucoma?
Glaucoma is usually asymptomatic, and the patient will not have any complaints. But in one type of glaucoma, the patient has redness, pain and coloured rings around light as symptoms that need to be treated early.
Can you prevent getting glaucoma?
Glaucoma detection involves a visit to the eye care doctor who will examine the eyes along with an eye pressure checkup. Some tests will also be done to know the type and extent of glaucoma. The tests are painless and computer-based, which are easy to perform by the patient.
Once the glaucoma is detected, treatment usually begins with eye drops, and in some cases, laser therapy is given. Regular application of eye drops and regular follow-ups is important to monitor the eye pressure and progress of glaucoma. Only if the condition is advanced and deteriorates glaucoma surgery is needed in the form of glaucoma filtration surgery.
World Glaucoma Week 2022 Vision
This year’s theme for world glaucoma week is – The world is bright, save your sight. Since glaucoma is a silent thief of vision and vision loss is irreversible, it is all the more important for the public to have awareness about this disease and visit the nearest eye doctor for a glaucoma checkup.
