Over six million cases of blindness in the country could have been prevented by awareness and early intervention, said Dr Amar Agarwal, CMD Dr Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals. There are 12 million blind people in India, and 55% lose vision from a cataract alone. “Cataract is preventable if detected early and treated,” he added.
Dr Agarwal was speaking to the media at the seventh national conference — RETICON 2017 — organised by Dr Agarwal’s Retina Foundation in Chennai on Sunday. He said that in recent years, the n u m b e r of cases of diabetic retinopathy, a condition where a diabetic can lose vision slowly has gone up.
“Retinal disorders accounted for 12% of all eye disorders in the country. While effective management remained a matter of concern, research in this field is the need of the hour,” he stated. “Reticon-2017 was organised to provide eye care practitioners a platform to discuss the latest advancements in the management of retinal disorders.” Over 400 ophthalmologists across the country participated in the conference, inaugurated by the State health secretary J Radhakrishnan. “Rate of blindness in the State has reduced to 0.3% from 1.4% in 1976. This speaks volumes about the success of Tamil Nadu State Blindness Control Programme.
Under the programme, over five lakh eye surgeries are done in the State annually,” said Radhakrishnan. Public institutions like the Government Institute of Ophthalmology, Egmore, and primary eye care hospitals in the private sector were together contributing to prevent blindness, said the official, urging doctors to upgrade their skills by participating in continuing medical education (CME) programmes like RETICON. Apart from presentations, discussions on retinopathy and macular surgeries were a part of the conference. Dr Rahul Khurana, associate professor of ophthalmology, University of San Francisco, also participated.