GLAUCOMA. It sneaks up on you and steals your sight. There is no pain and there are no symptoms.

That is why about half of all sufferers worldwide lose a large part of their vision before they even discover they have this optic nerve disease.

Unlike cataracts, this disease cannot be cured, and once blindness sets in, it is irreversible.

Too late.

As part of the first World Glaucoma Day tomorrow, health-care institutions have come together to raise awareness of the disease.

At high risk are the Chinese.

While the disease - the second top cause of blindness in the world - affects 3 per cent of people over the age of 50, east Asians are particularly susceptible to a type of the disease, known as closed-angle glaucoma.

In Singapore, the number of glaucoma patients may rise as the increasingly myopic population ages, doctors said.

About one to 1.5 per cent of all Chinese over 50 get this form of glaucoma, which is caused by a block in the eye's drainage system, said Associate Professor Aung Tin, a senior consultant and specialist in glaucoma at the Singapore National Eye Centre.

This blockage causes a build-up of pressure in the eye, one of the causes of glaucoma.

Chinese women who are gettting older may also be at a higher risk compared to their male counterparts, said Dr Jovina See, a consultant ophthalmologist and head of glaucoma services at the National University Hospital.

People with high blood pressure, smokers and those who are short-sighted may be more likely to get the other main form of the disease - open-angle glaucoma.

serl@sph.com.sg

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