January is Glaucoma Awareness Month, and the Lions Eye Institute for Transplant & Research, the largest eye bank and research center in the world, is working to spread the word that education and research are paramount to recognizing and treating eye disease.
A few stats:
- Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness globally.
- Glaucoma is not curable, and vision lost cannot be regained.
- An estimated 4 million Americans have glaucoma.
- Only about half of those 4 million know they have the disease because at first there are no symptoms.
- Glaucoma is caused by normal fluid pressure inside the eyes slowly rising.
- Anyone at any age can develop glaucoma. Approximately one out of every 10,000 babies born in the United States is born with glaucoma.
- Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness among African-Americans.
According to the Lions Eye Institute, receiving a dilated eye exam is the best way to detect glaucoma. For information and to see what glaucoma and other eye diseases do to your vision, visit www.lionseyeinstitute.org/resources-eye-disease.
Tribune staff
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