Eye specialist fears ‘daunting’ challenge of age-related blindness

CLOSE to 240 people are registered as blind in Ireland every year as a result of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the main cause of sight loss in people over the age of 50.

After age and family history, smoking is the main risk factor. The disease is becoming more prevalent and now accounts for almost half of all referrals to the National Council for the Blind in Ireland.

Eye disease specialist, Dr Niamh Collins, has revealed that more than 1,200 people with AMD were newly registered as blind in the past five years.

Dr Collins, one of the speakers at yesterday’s annual conference of the Irish College of Ophthalmologists, described AMD as one of the most challenging conditions in Ireland.

“Given Ireland’s ageing population trend, caring for patients with sight loss due to AMD is a daunting current and future challenge in terms of cost and appropriate healthcare service provision,” she said.

Dr Collins, a registrar in ophthalmology at the Midwestern Regional Hospital in Limerick, said there was an additional cost to the state whenever a person became blind.

She referred to a report in 2008 that estimated the annual cost of a person who is blind or visually impaired at between €7,000 and €15,000.

AMD is a condition that affects one in 10 people over the age of 50 and, while it is not as well known as other eye diseases, such as cataracts or glaucoma, it is the most common cause of registered blindness in Ireland.

The disease affects the macula, the central part of the retina at the back of the eye responsible for “straight-ahead” vision necessary for reading, driving or identifying faces.

There are two types of AMD — wet AMD and dry AMD. There is still no known treatment for dry AMD.

People with wet AMD, which is more common, can go blind within three months but a treatment that involves multiple injections over one to two years halts the disease and maintains good sight in the majority of patients.

Dr Collins presented a new study that put the cost of two years treatment for the current population with wet AMD of up to 13,000 at more than €25 million.

She warned the number of patients with wet AMD was likely to double to more than 20,000 in the next 15 years.