At least five million Chinese currently suffer from Glaucoma and
790,000 of them are blind, announced an official with the Chinese
Medical Association Tuesday.
Zhao Jialiang, head of the association’s ophthalmic department,
made the remarks based on various surveys over the past years.
As
a disease of optic nerve atrophy and visual field defection
resulting from increasing eye pressure, glaucoma is a major cause
of eye dysfunction and blindness.
The survey in the Shunyi District of Beijing found that older
people are more likely to be affected by the eye disease. Two out
of every one hundred people surveyed over the age of 50 suffer from
glaucoma.
Zhao said that harmful as the disease is, it can be prevented.
Early detection and early treatment are actually able to prevent
the patients from losing their sight. However, due to ignorance of
the disease, many people fail to go to hospital and often delay in
seeking treatment.
Zhao, who is also professor of Beijing Union Medical College
Hospital advised those over forty to have their eye pressure
checked periodically and include glaucoma in their yearly medical
examination.
(Xinhua News
Agency 08/15/2001)