Qatar Celebrates World Glaucoma Week

The State of Qatar along with the world countries will celebrate World Glaucoma Week during 8-14 March under the theme “Let’s Beat Invisible Glaucoma”.

The Supreme Council of Health will organize a number of awareness activities on eye health, blindness prevention as well as raising the awareness of patients who have glaucoma and patients who are more susceptible to having glaucoma on prevention, diagnosis and early treatment before suffering the complications which may cause low vision and visual impairment.

Dr. Al-Anoud bint Mohammad Al-Thani, SCH Director of Health Promotion and non-Communicable Diseases said that health awareness is a main objective of the SCH aiming at ensuring a healthy life for citizens and residents. Therefore, we invest world days and weeks in boosting health awareness among the community.

She emphasized on the significance of the early detection and prevention of glaucoma, which is a main cause of blindness in the State of Qatar. It is the leading cause of blindness for people aged forty and above based on the comprehensive medical survey carried out by the National Prevention of Blindness Committee in 2009.

She pointed out that international statistics show that the number of people having glaucoma is over 65 Million people. The risk of glaucoma lies in its being a silent illness and patients don’t recognize they have it until it progresses significantly. Therefore, the SCH is keen on raising the awareness of the public on this illness.

Dr. Badria Ali Al-Malki, SCH Head of Health Intelligence and Information Section and the National Coordinator of the Blindness Prevention Program stated that the SCH organizes health awareness activities for the public on glaucoma prevention, treatment and the significance of periodic eye and vision examination. The SCH also sends short messages in Arabic and English over the social media aiming to reach the different age groups of the community.

Glaucoma is a disease of the eye in which fluid pressure within the eye rises and pressure inside the eye rises. Unless this pressure is brought down and controlled, the optic nerve and other parts of the eye may become damaged, leading to loss of vision.

World Glaucoma Week, held in March, is a joint initiative between the World Glaucoma Association and the World Glaucoma Patient Association as part of the Global initiative “Vision 2020”. It takes place every year during the second week of March.

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