Prevent blindness, check your risk for eye diseases

Worldwide, about 285 million people are visually impaired and 80 percent of them are either preventable or treatable. Most of the people who go blind or living horrible life with visual impairment could have a better life and enjoy a delighted world. Little precaution and timely preventive measure could save millions of people from unnecessary loss of vision.
Most of the people have visual impairment due to the certain diseases including cataract, uncorrected refractive error, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy etc. The key is to learn our risk for developing those diseases and consult an ophthalmologist to diagnose at early stage and take necessary steps to prevent or halt the disease progression.
Cataract: The most common cause of blindness in Bangladesh and in other developing countries. Cataract — a condition when our eye lens gradually becomes cloudy that manifests as white or gray opacity in the eye. It leads to blurring of vision, night glares, ultimate loss of vision by and by. Cataracts are very common in older people.
However, there is highly effective and low cost surgery available to remove the cloudy lens and replace with an artificial one. It can restore vision like any normal people. Due to widespread misconception and ignorance about services, many people are mission out of the gift of modern medical science which is available and cost-effective.
Uncorrected refractive errors: Globally, uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause of visual impairment. Refractive errors occur when the eye is unable to properly focus images on the retina, resulting in blurred vision. Some people have difficulty in seeing distant objects that a normal person can see (called myopia). Some can see distant object more clearly than near one (called hyperopia or farsightedness). Other people have both problems or problem with reading at an older age (presbyopia).
Refractive errors can be easily corrected with simple glasses or rarely other refractive interventions. However, due to a lack of awareness or recognition by the individual or family, limited availability and cultural stigmas that discourage the use of glasses, leads to increase magnitude of the problem.
Glaucoma: Glaucoma is a silent killer that can destroy sight without much sign-symptoms. It occurs when normal fluid pressure inside eyes slowly rises.
Virtually, everyone is at risk of glaucoma. However, certain groups including older than 60 years, family history, Asian, people wearing high powered eye glass, steroid drug use, high blood pressure etc. are at higher risk than others.
Regular eye exams annually, especially for high risk individuals are the best form of prevention against significant glaucoma damage.
Diabetic retinopathy: With the increase in prevalence of diabetes, eye damage due to diabetes known as diabetic retinopathy has been increased significantly. The longer someone has diabetes, the more likely s/he will get diabetic retinopathy. Eye exam at least once a year for the diabetics is recommended to prevent irreversible vision loss.

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