Australian Aborigines going blind at six times the rate than rest of population.Byline: ANI Brisbane, Sep 28(ANI): A new Australian survey has found that Aborigines aborigines: see Australian aborigines. and Torres Strait Islanders Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands, part of Queensland, Australia. They are Melanesians culturally akin to the coastal peoples of Papua New Guinea. , in Queensland are going blind at a staggering six times the rate of other Australians despite the fact that they are born with better eyesight. The survey, led by the University of Melbourne's Indigenous Eye Health Unit, was conducted from data collected from about 400 Aboriginal across Australia and Torres Strait Islander people in 30 communities. It found that Aborigines were born with better eyesight than non-indigenous babies, however, by the time they reached adulthood they were six times more likely to be blind and three times more likely to have low vision. It emphasized that 1.9 per cent of indigenous adults suffered from blindness, 6.2 times higher than the rest of Australia's population. The major causes of blindness in Aboriginal adults were revealed as cataracts (32 per cent), followed by refractive error refractive error Ametropia, myopic shift Ophthalmology The inability of images to focus properly on the retina, often corrected by glasses contact lenses, or refractive surgery. See Astigmatism, Farsightedness, Myopia, Presbyopia. (14 per cent), optic atrophy Optic Atrophy Definition Optic atrophy can be defined as damage to the optic nerve resulting in a degeneration or destruction of the optic nerve. (14 per cent), trachoma trachoma (trəkō`mə), infection of the mucous membrane of the eyelids caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. Trachoma infects more than 150 million people worldwide. (nine per cent) and diabetic eye disease (nine per cent). "It is a national disgrace that more than 94 per cent of the vision loss associated with these eye diseases is preventable and treatable," News.com.au quoted Professor Hugh Taylor, survey's lead researcher, as saying. "We have good eye care services in Australia, we have a good health system, we shouldn't have that sort of unmet need here," he added. One of the main reasons for Aboriginal adults suffering such problems was related to the dearth of proper health care in remote communities. Prof Taylor further said current eye health services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract would be assessed to develop a plan to deliver better care to the community, as the survey unveiled that 35 per cent of Aboriginal adults had never had their eyes checked. "We know there is a great shortage of the number of ophthalmologists and optometrists in these remote communities," Prof Taylor said. "The best systems for delivering eye care have good coordination between visiting optometrists and visiting ophthalmologists working together as a team," he added. (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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