World Diabetes Awareness Day (14th November) #Diabetic Retinopathy

Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely was made for the eye

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World Diabetes Day is a day set aside to create awareness on diabetes and to further solidify the campaign launched against diabetes. The focus for this day is mainly on diabetes mellitus (type 2 diabetes) which comes about as result of dysfunction of the pancreas where insulin is produced for conversion of glucose to glycogen. World Diabetes Day is celebrated on the 14th of November every year. The celebration is led by the International Diabetes Federation with the theme; Diabetes Mellitus is avertible and remediable thus a lot can be done about it, whiles type 1 diabetes can still be managed with insulin injections despite the fact that is not preventable.

Diabetic Retinopathy
Lots of systemic Pathologies have lots of negative effects on the eye and our vision as a whole and diabetes is no exception, as a matter of fact, the changes diabetes may present in your eye may cause such drastic changes which can lead to vision loss if not well managed. So what is diabetic retinopathy?

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Diabetic Retinopathy is a condition where elevated sugar (glucose) levels in the blood as a result of diabetes damages the retinal blood vessels. Sometimes the vessels distend and causes leakages which fills the vitreous and impeded light transmission. Vessels may even close halting blood passage, with pressure build up, vessels may rupture or neovascularization (that is, growth of new blood vessels) may occur also affecting vision.

Symptoms of DR

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Diabetic Retinopathy does not usually present with symptoms at its onset, however, as it progresses certain symptoms start showing;

1. Floaters (things passing through your vision transiently)
2. Blurry vision (most often this is due to changes that comes with the lens as a result of the sugar)
3. Dark spots in field of vision
4. Bad nocturnal vision
5. Colours appear to fade

Treatment of DR

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Diabetic Retinopathy does not have a cure since it does not stem from the eye, thus the effective management has to do with controlling the systemic blood glucose levels, irrespective of this however, some supportive treatments include; supplements, spectacles and eye drops which may be given to help with symptoms temporarily. Anti- Vascular Growth Endothelial Factors and steroids may be given to control macular swelling. Vitrectomy surgery may also be done to remove the vitreous if blood leakages have filled it such that light cannot focus on the retina.

Don’t bend your head, instead hold it high and look the world straight in the eye.

What is @bettervision about?

@bettervision is is a project initiated by @nattybongo and friends to give back to the society the knowledge and skill acquired through the Optometric Studies in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.It is an outreach system where we visit the less privileged communities to offer free eye screening services and education to the people within the community

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To reduce or prevent vision loss through diseases such as glaucoma, cataract and refractive errors.

To enlighten the majority of the Ghanaian population about the importance of proper visual care.

To conscientize people on the need for regular eye checks

To get more people to have their wards screened within the Critical periods of a Child’s Vision Development; thus from ages 3 to till about 10 years.

To help the blind and people with low vision live a better life within the society through education of the general public to stop stigmatization.

Our greatest gratitude goes to @fundition @adollaraday @surfyogi @girlsfoundation @bleepcoin @ackza and @wafrica for helping to make the aims and objectives of @bettervision a reality.

This is me @nattybongo reporting for @bettervision. Thanks for your time