Britain will face a major increase in rates of the serious eye condition macular degeneration, experts warned today.
The condition affects about ten per cent of people over the age of 80, according to a new analysis.
And this means the numbers will increase by a third by 2020, according to a report in the British Medical Journal.
Dr Christopher Owen, of St George’s, University of London, UK, says his estimates suggest there are already three times as many cases of age-related macular degeneration a year as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence believes.
He estimates 71,000 new cases a year – with 40,000 of these being the wet form of the disease.
He writes: "Photodynamic therapy and newer drugs (antivascular endothelial growth factors) are increasingly being used to treat the wet form, but there is currently no effective treatment for the dry form of AMD."
British Medical Journal February 14 2012; doi 11.1036/bjophthalmol-2011-301109
Leave a Reply