Glaucoma cases expected to rise

A national vision care plan that got stalled two years is getting back on track.

According to Dr. Keith Gordon, vice-president of Research and Service Quality at CNIB, the fact that we are dealing with an aging population and a doubling in all major eye diseases in the next 25 years, makes a vision care plan extremely important.

He is part of a new group, Vision2020 Canada, that has formed to map out vision care issues and to take them to government.Gordon says that should happen within the year.

He said he expects it will go further than theproposals in a report written 2009.

At that time estimated the total financial cost of vision loss in Canada at $15.8 billion per year.

This push comes as CNIB is reaching out to remind Canadians this week about the dangers of glaucoma, an eye disease that can be treated if detected in its early stages. But without detection, it progresses slowly and painlessly.

It's estimated that while 250,000 Canadians are living with glaucoma, half of this number don't know they have it.

The risk factors for the disease are family history, elevated eye pressure, being over 40, being of African, Asian or Inuit descent and having myopia.

Despite the fact that glaucoma tends to run in families, a CNIB survey found that almost half (47 per cent) do not feel well-informed about their family history of the disease.

"Family history, particularly a parent or sibling with the disease, is considered one of the primary risk factors of glaucoma," says Gordon.

Dr. Neeru Gupta, director of the glaucoma unit at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital, says that the disease can only be picked up by regular eye examinations with an eye doctor. "If someone in your family has glaucoma, you are at a higher risk. Get your eye pressure and optic nerves checked for glaucoma. Early treatment is a powerful way to prevent vision loss."

There is no cure for glaucoma.Over time the disease causes loss of peripheral vision, followed by "tunnel" vision or complete vision.Once vision begins to deteriorate, it can't be restored but early detection means vision loss can be controlled.