16 million people affected by glaucoma in India: AIIMS Bhubaneswar

Every year the second week of March is celebrated as World Glaucoma week worldwide to create public awareness about this blinding disease which is preventable and the damage that happens to the optic nerve is irreversible.

Bhubaneswar: There are 78 million Glaucoma patients in the world now, of which 16 million reside in India only, said AIIMS Bhubaneswar Executive Director Dr. Ashutosh Biswas on occasion of World Glaucoma Week celebrated at the premiere institute.

Distributing medication kits during the event, Dr Biswas informed that out of every 100 patients coming to eye OPD at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, four-five patients get detected with glaucoma where maximum patients detected the  at the last stage without any symptoms.

Interacting with the patients in the programme organized by Department of Ophthalmology on Tuesday, Dr Biswas advised all the patients and risk category population of age more than 40 years, family history of glaucoma and patients having diabetes and hypertension to screen for glaucoma as it can be prevented in case of early detection.

“Every individual above 40 years irrespective of sex should an annual checkup of intraocular pressure. People should avoid over the counter use of steroid eye drops for different eye disorders. The first-degree relatives of glaucoma patients should undergo more frequent eye checkup as the probability of developing glaucoma in them is more,” he said.

To mark the occasion, there was an awareness talk and meeting which, apart from Dr Biswas, was also attended by Medical Superintendent Dr Dillip Kumar Parida and Dean Dr Prashanta Raghab Mohapatra. Department Head Dr. Sucheta Parija elaborated on glaucoma and population at risk of getting affected while Dr. Bhagabat Nayak spoke about the facilities for the treatment of glaucoma available at AIIMS Bhubaneswar which includes laser and surgery facilities for both adult and pediatric glaucoma. All types of advanced tests to detect glaucoma like perimetry, OCT, UBM are also available here, he said.

Dr Sandip Kumar Sahu spoke about various activities taken by AIIMS at community level to screen and detect glaucoma. Addl. Prof Anatomy Dr Pravash Ranjan Tripathy, Dr Bijnya Panda, Dr Bruttendu Moharana, Dr Priyadarshini Mishra along with other officials and staff also participated in the programme.

Notably, all types of glaucoma patients are coming from different parts of Odisha as well as from neighbouring states like West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand to AIIMS Bhubaneswar. As per information, due to Covid 19 many patients couldn’t get the appropriate treatment on time and lost their vision.

Every year the second week of March is celebrated as World Glaucoma week worldwide to create public awareness about this blinding disease which is preventable and the damage that happens to the optic nerve is irreversible. This year the theme is “World is Bright, Save your sight”.

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