Treatment gives hope to eye disease sufferers

A TREATMENT is now available that can halt the development of the leading cause of blindness in Ireland.

More than 60,000 people in this country suffer from age-related macular degeneration and the number is set to treble within the next 10 to 15 years.

There are two types of AMD — wet AMD, which is more common, is aggressive and distressing, whereas dry AMD, for which there is still no known treatment, is very slow moving.

People with wet AMD can go blind within three months so the new treatment, called Macugen, developed by Pfizer, which can target the underlying disease process, is a very welcome development.

Retinal specialist in Waterford Regional Hospital Dr Stephen Beatty stressed that all people over 55 should see an ophthalmologist every two years to be checked for AMD and glaucoma.

“This new treatment involves an injection to the eye every six weeks for a period of at least a year. The treatment halts the disease and sometimes results in improved eyesight,” he said.

While the disease is more common in women, both sexes are at risk he said.

“Although it is a very good and proven treatment, it is not risk free,” Dr Beatty stressed.

“There is a one-in-300 risk of a complication such as haemorrhage, infection or retinal detachment. But the benefits outweigh the risks.”

National Council for the Blind in Ireland (NCBI) chief executive Des Kenny said the council fully supported any effort to prevent and limit the spread of the of the disease.

NCBI’s latest study of the blind register shows a dramatic rise in registrations due to AMD. Numbers more than doubled between 1996 and 2003 and this upward trend is continuing.

More than half of people with AMD supported by the campaign group MIST (Macular Impairment Support and Togetherness) have the wet form of the disease.

Coordinator Rosemary Smyth said they welcomed any treatment that addressed wet AMD and offset the development of the disease.

Fighting Blindness, an Irish organisation that supports people with sight problems and commissions research in the area, said that while the problem of wet AMD was a global one, countries like Ireland with a rapidly ageing population were hit particularly hard.