For World Glaucoma Week, Dr. Scott Lawrence, Kellogg Eye Center for International Ophthalmology (KECIO) reports from an active surgical outreach to alleviate blindness in Southern Ethiopia. A farmer carries his 3-year-old son into the exam room. Our cursory examination reveals enlarged eyes with cloudy corneas and elevated eye pressures. Undiagnosed and untreated congenital glaucoma remains…
For World Glaucoma Week, Drew Keys does a Q&A with Dr Kham Od Nouansavanh, the only glaucoma specialist practicing in Laos. Where do you work and what do you do? I work as an ophthalmologist at the National Ophthalmology Centre (NOC) in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Currently, I am the only glaucoma specialist, who is…
For World Glaucoma Week, Professor William Morgan on use of a glaucoma drainage device Indonesia… Glaucoma is the second common cause of blindness in Indonesia, with an estimated 330,000 bilaterally blind patients. The rate is approximately 7/1000 over the age of 50 are blind from glaucoma. The glaucoma prevalence rate is 5 percent with slightly more…
For World Glaucoma Week, Wai Siene Ng on glaucoma in Wales… Wai Siene Ng is part of Allergan Foundation’s International Glaucoma Panel. Wales is one of the four countries which together with England, Northern Ireland and Scotland form the United Kingdom. Health care is publicly funded in the form of the National Health Service (NHS) and…
For World Glaucoma Week, Nikhil Choudhari and Rohit Khanna on glaucoma in rural India… Glaucoma is recognized as one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness across the world. According to a 2010 estimate, the number of people with glaucoma was 11 million and another 24 million were at risk of the disease in India.1 A…
For World Glaucoma Week, Imran Khan on Keep Sight, which is tackling glaucoma in Nigeria and India… “My sight went in one eye about a year ago, and then in the other six months later. The consultant has told me that my sight could have been saved if I’d have come here sooner. I just don’t…
For World Glaucoma Week, Amel Meddeb-Ouertani on why we need to come together to tackle glaucoma especially in Africa… Africa is the poorest region in the world: ½ of the population live on less than 1 $/ day. Millions of people don’t have access to health care in general and less than 25% currently have regular access…
For World Glaucoma Week, Sangchul Yoon on glaucoma in South Korea, risk factors and more… The order of the leading cause of global blindness is cataract, refractive error, glaucoma, and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). However, the impact of cataract on the number of people who are blind is quite different in high income countries like South…
For World Glaucoma Week, Mona Kaleem on why family history matters with glaucoma… I began taking care of glaucoma patients well before I even decided on a career in the medical field. My first patient was my grandmother, a woman who had been widowed young and left to raise three children on her own. She overcame…
For World Glaucoma Week, Dakki Sherpa on glaucoma in Nepal… Glaucoma is the leading cause of global irreversible blindness. According to Tham YC et al the number of people with glaucoma worldwide will increase to 111.8 million in 2040, disproportionally affecting people residing in Asia and Africa. Nepal falls in this category. Considering the difficulty in…
For World Glaucoma Week, Dr Mohd Aziz Husni writes the fears of a person with a family history of glaucoma… Dear Ophthalmologist, Optometrist, Optician and all Primary Health Caregivers, For those of you who don’t know me, it’s okay. I am just your ordinary family man in his mid-forties. My dad is currently blind due to…
For World Glaucoma Week, Drs Rizwan Malik and Deepak P. Edward discuss the advances that Ophthalmologists at King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital (KKESH) are making to tackle childhood blindness from congenital glaucoma in the Kingdom. Alleviating childhood blindness is a priority for the World Health Organization (WHO). Approximately 8,000 children are estimated to have functional low vision…
For World Glaucoma Week, Aron Szabo on glaucoma related blindness in Hungary… Hungary conducted its first and only population-based study to date between 2014 and 2015. It included 3523 individuals and followed the Rapid Assessment for Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) survey methodology. The prevalence of bilateral blindness (presenting visual acuity <0.05 for the better seeing eye) was…
For World Glaucoma Week, Lauren Entwistle on sustainable solutions to handle the growing number of glaucoma patients at health facilities in Australia… When our reception clerks get out the sticky tape my heart sinks a little and I make sure to ask for an extra shot in my flat white before heading back to clinic. They’ve…
For World Glaucoma Week, Bernardo Soares on glaucoma collaborative care programmes… About one in 200 Australians will develop glaucoma by the age of 40.1 With our current life expectancy at 81 years (male) and 85 years (female),2 a growing cohort of patients will require up to 40 years of regular eye appointments to manage the condition.…
For World Glaucoma Week, Dr Marvice Okwen on glaucoma in Cameroon and what needs to be done… While setting up my slit lamp, a blind man walked in, holding a 2month old baby; and said, ‘doctor! I heard you over the radio talking about glaucoma in children; I think my child has the kind of eyes…
For World Glaucoma Week, Dr João Barbosa Breda on hope for the future of glaucoma patients… Dr Breda is part of Allergan Foundation’s International Glaucoma Panel. There are many things in the near future that might improve the quality of life of glaucoma patients. First of all, there have been very good results with new artificial…
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