Dr Adegbola Adeyemi, a Consultant Ophthalmologist, University College Hospital, Ibadan (UCHI), says Africans of 40 years are at risk of glaucoma.
Adeyemi made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday in commemoration of the 2018 World Glaucoma Week.
The event is marked between March 11 and 17, annually.
The week is a major collaboration between the World Glaucoma Association and the World Glaucoma Patient Association.
Eye experts globally are expected to carry out series of activities to alert people to have regular eye (and optic nerve) checks to detect glaucoma earlier thus contributing to sight preservation.
The theme of this year’s week is: “GREEN: Go get your eyes tested for Glaucoma – save your sight”.
However, the consultant defined glaucoma “as a name given to a group of eye conditions in which the optic nerve is damaged at the point where it leaves the eye.
“This nerve carries information from the light sensitive layer in the eye, the retina, to the brain where it is perceived as a picture.
“The eye needs a certain amount of pressure to keep the eyeball in shape so that it can work properly.
“In some people the damage is caused by raised eye pressure. Others may have an eye pressure within normal limits but damage occurs because there is weakness in the optic nerve,” Adeyemi said.
According to the consultant, eye pressure is largely independent of blood pressure.
Adeyemi also described glaucoma as silent eye blindness and an extremely serious eye disorder which can cause blindness if not treated early.
“Glaucoma is a disease that damages the optic nerve, the part of the eye that carries the images we see through the brain.
“In the healthy eye, a clear liquid circulates in the front portion of the eye.
“To maintain a constant healthy eye pressure, the eye continually produces a small amount of this fluid and an equal amount which flows out of the eye.
“If you have glaucoma, the fluid does not flow properly through the drainage system.
“The fluid pressure increases and this extra force press on the optic nerve in the back of the eye, causing damage to the nerve fibres’’.
The consultant said that increased eye pressure was the primary cause of glaucoma, adding that if the optic nerve comes under too much pressure, then it can be injured.
Adeyemi explained further that a layer of cells behind the iris (the coloured part of the eye) produces a watery fluid, called ‘aqueous’.
“This fluid passes through a hole in the centre of the iris (called the pupil) to leave the eye through tiny drainage channels.
“These are in the angle between the front of the eye (the cornea) and the iris and return the fluid to the blood stream.
“Normally the fluid produced is balanced by the fluid draining out, but if it cannot escape or too much is produced, then the eye pressure will rise,” the consultant said.
Adeyemi said there was no obvious symptom of glaucoma but that increased pressure in the eye may be an indicator.
The opthalmologist said that the disease may manifest with few early signs than major eye diseases, and that the early detection of glaucoma is by regular eye examination.
Adeyemi said that people prone to developing glaucoma are adults over 60 and people with a family history of the disease.
The expert advised that people should take their eye health very seriously and do periodic eye screening, stressing that prevention is better than cure.
