May is Healthy Vision Month (HVM), a national eye health observance devoted to promoting the vision objectives in Healthy People 2010. HVM 2007 focuses on Healthy People 2010 Vision Objective 28-6: Reduce visual impairment due to glaucoma. Keep Vision in Your Future is the theme for HVM 2007.
The focus this year is to educate people at higher risk for glaucoma. An estimated 2.2 million Americans have been diagnosed with primary open-angle glaucoma, the most common form of the disease. An additional 2 million Americans have glaucoma and don’t even know it.
People at higher risk for glaucoma include the following:
African Americans over the age of 40
Everyone over the age of 60, especially Mexican Americans
People with a family history of glaucoma.
Glaucoma has no warning signs and, if left untreated, can result in permanent vision loss. NEI recommends that people at higher risk for glaucoma have a comprehensive dilated eye examination every one to two years. For more information, please visit the Glaucoma Education Webpage at www.nei.nih.gov/glaucoma.
Source: MedlinePlus
No comments:
Post a Comment