FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:
Dori Jennings
Prevent Blindness Ohio
(614)270-0746
[email protected]
Prevent Blindness Ohio Declares Third Annual
Geographic Atrophy Awareness Week from Dec. 4-10, 2023
— Prevent Blindness Ohio provides free geographic atrophy educational resources for patients, care partners and healthcare professionals, including new Focus on Eye Health Expert series episode, Web resource, Fact Sheets and More —
Columbus, OH (December 4, 2023) – Prevent Blindness Ohio is announcing the third annual Geographic Atrophy (GA) Awareness Week from Dec. 4-10, 2023. GA is a medical term that refers to later-stage cases of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Macular degeneration is an eye condition that affects the macula of the retina. More than 8 million people in the world have GA, with an estimated 1 million in the United States, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Prevent Blindness Ohio offers a variety of free, educational resources on GA including a dedicated webpage, expert videos, a comprehensive fact sheet and a series of social media graphics. The fact sheet and graphics are available in English and Spanish. This year’s GA Awareness Week is supported by funding from Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Iveric Bio, an Astellas Company.
The Prevent Blindness Focus on Eye Health Expert Series episodes include “Geographic Atrophy and Patient Support,” featuring Prevent Blindness Ohio Past President and CEO, Sherry Williams, sharing her story as a care partner for her mother diagnosed with GA, and the “Geographic Atrophy” episode, with Janet S. Sunness, MD, medical director of the Richard E. Hoover Low Vision Rehabilitation Services at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center.
GA can lead to progressive and permanent vision loss. Patients with GA in one eye are more likely to develop it in the other eye. There may be no symptoms in the early stages until the disease progresses or affects both eyes. Vision changes due to GA may include some of the following symptoms:
- Difficulty seeing in the center of vision
- Numbers or letters disappearing or missing when reading
- A dim or dark spot in central or near central (side) vision
- Trouble seeing in dim light
- Needing extra light to read
- Dull or washed-out colors
- Vision not as clear or sharp
“The good news is that promising new treatments for GA are now available, with additional options in development,” said Amy Pulles, President & CEO of Prevent Blindness Ohio. “By working closely with their eye doctors, people with GA have hope to preserve their vision from the damaging effects of GA.”
For GA and/or AMD patients and their care partners, Prevent Blindness Ohio also offers the free resource, Living Well with Low Vision. This program provides a variety of free directories, a library of self-help guides, downloadable apps including “GuideME for AMD,” access to clinical trial research, and recent AMD research news.
For more information on geographic atrophy, please visit https://preventblindness.org/geographic-atrophy, or contact Prevent Blindness Ohio at (800) 301-2020 or pbohio.org.
For a listing of vision care financial assistance programs in English or Spanish, visit https://www.preventblindness.org/vision-care-financial-assistance-information.
About Prevent Blindness Ohio
Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation’s leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness serves all 88 Ohio counties, providing direct services to 1,000,000 Ohioans annually and educating millions of consumers about what they can do to protect and preserve their precious gift of sight.
For more information or to contribute, call 800-301-2020 or donate here. Visit us at pbohio.org. Follow us: facebook.com
###