Keeping an eye on World Glaucoma Week
World Glaucoma Week wraps up today after shedding light on a disease that affects 1.9 per cent of Canada’s population.
Dr. Rhea Anderson, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Optometrists, said glaucoma is a condition that causes damage to the optic nerve in the eye. The optic nerve is the part of the eye that sends information to the brain.
“It’s crucial that the nerve is healthy so the information gets from point A to point B,” Anderson said. “When you have a condition like glaucoma, where the optic nerve is damaged, the information isn’t transmitted as efficiently as it should be so people gradually will lose a portion of their side vision.”
The disease does progress over time, causing those with the disease to lose more and more of their side vision, eventually ending up with only a small tunnel of vision in their central visual field.