Progress reported in retinitis program ...

Thanks to the development of a national program for the early diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa in Cuba, treatments are more efficient and patients have been able to improve the quality of their life, reports program director Obel Garcia Baez.

In a Nov. 16 article, he told Granma the disease's prevalence had jumped from 1.4% of the population in 1990 to 4.4% in 2004.

This figure includes 2,718 men and 2,378 women with higher rates in the eastern Cuban provinces of Granma, Las Tunas and Camaguey. The cases belong to 3,053 families and 24.3% of all cases are blood-related.

Retinitis pigmentosa is a degenerative, genetic disease that causes the progressive death of ocular cells called photoreceptors resulting in increasing loss of eyesight.