Fighting the Good Fight – India Against Diabetic Retinopathy

According to the National Eye Institute (part of the US National Institutes of Health)²Diabetes damages blood vessels throughout the body. When the blood vessels in the eyes are damaged, they leak or bleed. Some blood vessels get blocked. Diabetic retinopathy can also lead to diabetic macular edema – a condition that occurs in 1 in 15 diabetic patients and leads to blurred vision. Diabetic retinopathy can also cause abnormal blood vessels to exit the retina, blocking fluid drainage from the eye. This leads to a type of glaucoma, which leads to blindness.

If we crunch the numbers here, we’re guessing 12.5 million people who may suffer from diabetic retinopathy in 2021 alone.

Although these numbers are scary, the disease itself is not incurable. Diabetic retinopathy is, in fact, completely preventable through regular eye exams and some lifestyle modifications. Systematic screening has been adopted in many countries. In the United Kingdom, diabetic retinopathy is no longer the leading cause of blindness in the working-age population. In fact, in Wales, the incidence of new certifications for visual impairment has decreased by 40-50% in just 8 years since routine screening was implemented.

This is why Network18 has launched ‘Netra Suraksha’ – India Against Diabetes The initiative, in collaboration with Novartis, aims to raise awareness and build effective partnerships with the Indian medical community, think tanks and policy makers to better tackle the disease. The initiative started with a series of round table discussions on November 27, 2021, you can see them on youtube, News18.com and Facebook, The focus was on interaction detection, timely prevention and available treatments. This will be followed by two more round table sessions in the coming weeks. We will use explanatory videos and articles to shed light on various aspects of the disease and, hopefully, inspire diabetic patients to take action in their favour.

By spreading awareness about this and the ease with which this disease can be managed, we are hoping to do our bit to reduce these scary numbers in size.

This is where you come in. Today, if you live in urban India, someone in your circle of friends, colleagues and loved ones is diabetic. Talk to them (or share this article!) about this initiative, and ask them when they last had their eyes checked. If it’s been more than a few months, request them to have a diabetic retinopathy self check-up Here And visit your doctor for a simple, painless eye test.