According to “Vista in Salute – Report 2019/2022” of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness – IAPB Italia Onlus, there are around 76 million people affected by glaucoma in the world, around 1 million in our country, of which however more or less half are not aware they are affected. In fact, a large part of the population does not know what glaucoma is and the serious risk of vision loss that results from it. And even those who have heard of this pathology and know it think that the symptoms are recognizable and allow you to notice it in time. But is not so. To inform about the risks and damage that this “silent thief of sight” can cause, from Sunday 10 to Saturday 16 March “World Glaucoma Week” by IAPB Italia Onlus returns to 100 Italian squares, a major awareness campaign that involves spread throughout the territories thanks to the collaboration of the territorial structures of the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired, with the distribution of information leaflets in the squares of the provincial capitals, interviews with ophthalmologists in the local media and free checks or in-depth visits with ophthalmologists. The booklets effectively answer questions that provide basic knowledge of glaucoma: “What is it?”; “Is it a rare disease?”; “What are the symptoms?”; “Can it be cured?”; “How do I know if I have glaucoma?”. Thus we discover that glaucoma is an eye disease that damages the optic nerve, often associated with increased eye pressure and is the main cause of irreversible blindness in the world. It only gives symptoms in an advanced stage, when the damage caused is no longer repairable.
Furthermore, the progression of the disease is so slow that the patient does not notice anything for a long time. In order to treat it, it is necessary to recognize it when the symptoms have not yet manifested themselves. To find out if you have glaucoma, simply contact an ophthalmologist who can diagnose it in time with a specialist visit. To find out more about the information in the booklet, simply scan the QR-code with your mobile phone and access the website www.settimanaglaucoma.it: a complete source of information on the pathology and on the free initiatives available to the population at a local level for the Week. “It seems possible to say – says Mario Barbuto, president of IAPB Italia Onlus – that the current healthcare models are no longer able to manage the visual health needs of a population that requires prevention to be an effective part of treatment pathways. Nor is there evidence of the existence of long waiting lists.” “We find an awareness among the population, in some ways timidly increased, on the need for prevention of eye diseases – continues Barbuto – but the public offer uses old models of ocular health, incapable of ensuring access to an eye examination for those who they risk losing all or part of their sight. More precisely, there is not yet a selection at the territorial level that acts as a filter to guarantee those who need priority access to treatment to quickly reach the specialized centres, i.e. hospitals. In this way, hospitals are freed from the pressure of deferrable visits and the sight of those most at risk of low vision and blindness is protected. Therefore the National Health Service must be reorganized to guarantee effective access to public ophthalmic services”.
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