April Brown: highlights prevention, treatment and awareness about blindness

It is essential to understand that many of the causes of blindness are preventable and treatable. “The leading causes of preventable blindness include diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy and trachoma. I highlight, among them, diabetic retinopathy, that is, diabetes in the back of the eye. This is a treacherous disease, in which the first stages do not produce any visual symptoms. As the disease progresses, so does its severity. When the first vision symptoms appear, the eye disease has already progressed a lot. Therefore, it is recommended that the first examination carried out by an ophthalmologist in patients with type 2 diabetes be carried out immediately upon diagnosis and in type 1 patients, five years after diagnosis. To effectively prevent many of these diseases, it is necessary to have regular eye exams to detect eye problems in the early stages, adopt a healthy lifestyle, with a diet rich in essential nutrients such as vitamins A, C and E, protect the eyes from excessive exposure to UV rays, wearing suitable sunglasses and avoiding smoking, which is associated with several eye diseases”, explains ophthalmologist and head of the Retina department at BOS, Dr. Arnaldo F. Bordon.