World Glaucoma Day
Awareness on glaucoma essential
March 6 has been declared as the World Glaucoma Day (WGD) by a joint global initiative of the World Glaucoma Association (WGA) and the World Glaucoma Patients Association (WGPA) being observed from this year.
Glaucoma Society of Bangladesh (GSB) has organised different programmes including rally and press conference to observe the day.
Glaucoma is a progressive disease causing irreversible visual loss, usually without warning until relatively advanced. 50 per cent of affected people in the developed world (up to 90 per cent in developing countries) do not know that they have the disease. Therefore they do not avail treatment.
Community awareness needs to be significantly increased in this regard. This includes awareness of the disease, regular eye check-up, earlier detection and avoidance of unnecessary or preventable visual disability.
Ultimate goal of the World Glaucoma Day is to enhance the global glaucoma awareness through traditional or novel communication strategies and events rather than having a single large event.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that cause progressive damage to the optic nerve at the point where it leaves the eye to carry visual information to the brain. If left untreated, most types of glaucoma progress (without warning or obvious symptoms to the patient) towards gradually worsening visual damage and may lead to blindness.
Once incurred, visual damage is mostly irreversible, and this has led glaucoma being the "silent blinding disease" or the "sneak thief of sight".
Glaucoma is the second most common cause of blindness worldwide and third cause of blindness after cataract and corneal blindness in Bangladesh. It is estimated that 4.5 million persons globally are blind due to glaucoma and this number will rise to 11.2 million by 2020.
There are several types of glaucoma. Some may occur as a complication of other visual disorders (the so called "secondary" glaucomas) but the vast majority is "primary", i.e. occurring without a known cause. It was once believed that the causes of most or all glaucomas were high pressure within the eye (known as intraocular pressure — sometimes abbreviated as IOP). It is now established, however, that even people without an abnormally high IOP may suffer from glaucoma. Intraocular pressure is considered therefore today as a "risk factor" for glaucoma, together with other factors such as racial ancestry, family history, high myopia and age.
Some forms of glaucoma may occur at birth (congenital) or during infancy and childhood (juvenile). In most cases, however, glaucoma appears after the 4th decade of life, and its frequency increases with age. There is no clearly established difference in glaucoma incidence between men and women.
There is no cure for glaucoma yet, and vision loss is irreversible. However, medication, Laser or surgery can halt or slow-down any further vision loss. Therefore early detection is essential to limit visual impairment and prevent the progression towards severe visual handicap or blindness.
Dr M Nazrul Islam, a Glaucoma Specialist, is an Associate Professor of Ohthalmilogy of BIRDEM Hospital, Dhaka.
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