Waiting lists are too long and private eye exams are very expensive
We are in the midst of world health week glaucoma, a degenerative disease that causes irreversible damage to vision. It started yesterday, March 10th and will continue until Saturday March 16th for raise awareness of a serious but difficult to diagnose health problemso much so that it is called “the silent thief of sight” and is the most frequent cause of irreversible blindness.
Glaucoma Week
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Precisely because the diagnosis of this disease is very difficult, correct information on the subject is essential. For this reason the Glaucoma Week It is useful for drawing attention to a pathology that afflicts you 76 million people in the world, one million in Italy alonebut unfortunately in our country half don’t even know they have it and realize it too late.
Why glaucoma diagnosis is difficult
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The reason why glaucoma is difficult to diagnose is the same reason why it is called the “silent thief of sight”, that is, because it gives no symptoms. Unfortunately, the symptoms arrive when there is little that can be done and the risk of blindness is difficult to avoid. If you diagnose it early, however, you can keep it at bay and avoid going blind with therapies based on drops or interventions for which, in most cases, hospitalization is not even necessary. There’s only one way to diagnose it: do a eye examination. But this is exactly where the problems come…
As he points out Mario Barbutopresident of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness – IAPB Italia Onlus, the healthcare models in our country currently do not simplify patients’ access to diagnoses: the waiting lists are too long. Public health is unable to guarantee access to an eye exam for everyone at the right time and therefore the risks for many people increase. In the meantime the private visits they are very expensive and not everyone can afford them.
Countryside
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IAPB Italia Onlus is engaged this week in an important awareness campaign which is becoming widespread across the territories thanks to the collaboration of the territorial structures of the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired. In the squares of the provincial capitals they are distributed these days information leaflets and furthermore the population is sensitized with interviews with ophthalmologists in the media premises e free checks or in-depth visits with ophthalmologists.
Gazzetta dello Sport
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