Glaucoma Awareness Week is coming to a close.
Doctors across the globe and around Prince George are urging people to get their eyes checked, saying that glaucoma is the second most common cause of preventable vision loss.
Local optometrist Dr. Michael Dennis calls glaucoma a “fairly common” disease, affecting around 400,000 Canadians.
“The problem with glaucoma is that over half the people that have it don’t know they have it,” he says. “So there are more people, but those are the diagnosed people, that 400,000.”
Dr. Dennis says there are no symptoms for the most common form of glaucoma and suggests the best way to know if you are affected is to get your eyes examined by an optometrist.
(Photo courtesy the AARP’s blog)