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blindness and individuals at high risk for diabetes should have regular dilated eye examinations each year, visiting American eye specialist Dr Kimball Woodward has said.
Dr Woodward who is from the American Board of Ophthalmology in New York is currently offering free eye examinations at Dr Solomon Guramatunhu’s Eye Centre in Harare.
He will be in Zimbabwe for three weeks voluntary eye examinations.
“Diabetes is the major cause of blindness in the world, but diabetes is detectable through a comprehensive eye exam so we are appealing to the public with or without diabetes to visit any of their eye doctors to be examined,” Dr Woodward said.
He said individuals should consider an eye examination the first line of detection for this serious disease and its complications.
“In nearly all cases, diabetic retinopathy, a potentially blinding complication of diabetes and sometimes the very first sign of diabetes, can be diagnosed during a dilated eye exam in which drops are put into the eyes,” he said.
Dr Woodward said other health-threatening conditions may also be discovered during an eye examination.
“We can uncover unique signs that may even save someone’s life.
“The effects of high blood pressure, anaemia and elevated blood cholesterol can be seen during a dilated eye exam because the eye is the only place within the body that blood vessels can be seen in their natural state,” he said.
Millions of people all over the world have diabetes and over six million of those are undiagnosed.
According to health scientist at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Diabetes Translation in the US over 12 000 to 24 000 people unnecessarily lose their vision yearly because of diabetes complications that can often be prevented through early detection and timely treatment.
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