BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.3.6//EN TZID:Europe/Amsterdam X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/Amsterdam BEGIN:VEVENT UID:507@worldglaucomaweek.org DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:20150308T100000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:20150308T170000 DTSTAMP:20150409T084053Z URL:https://www.worldglaucomaweek.org/activity/2015-enhancing-sight-enhanc ing-lives-kick-off-activity-glaucoma-fair/ SUMMARY:2015 “Enhancing Sight\, Enhancing Lives” kick-off activity- Gla ucoma Fair DESCRIPTION:Taiwan Initiated 2015 WGW Activity to Promote Glaucoma Awarenes s\n\n2015 “Enhancing Sight\, Enhancing Lives” kick-off activity was la unched officially to support 2015 World Glaucoma Week (WGW). Through free intraocular pressure (IOP) screening\, citizens are reminded of the import ance of early diagnosis and early intervention\, so as to “Beat Invisibl e Glaucoma” as the main them of 2015 WGW.\n\nThe kick-off activity of 20 15 “Enhancing Sight\, Enhancing Lives” eye-care campaign was launched officially to unveil the support for World Glaucoma Week (WGW). WGW is a g lobal promotional activity of glaucoma launched by the World Glaucoma Asso ciation and World Glaucoma Patient Association to arouse the public awaren ess to prevent glaucoma through global action.\n\nThe Ophthalmological Soc iety of Taiwan (TOS)\, Taiwan Academy of Ophthalmology (TAO)\, Taiwan Glau coma Association (TGA)\, and Alcon Taiwan organized eye-care activity duri ng World Glaucoma Week (March 8-14\, 2015) to fight this eye disease causi ng irreversible blindness worldwide through publicizing the need of glauco ma prevention. Through above activity\, it generated over hundred news cov erages and successfully attracted the public attentions to glaucoma issue. \n\nThose with high myopia\, elderly people\, and those with family histor y are high-risk groups\n\nAccording to Dr. Lin-chung Woung\, President of TOS\, TOS began co-organizing the national eye-care campaign with Alcon Ta iwan from 2005. Glaucoma is a silent thief of the sight and it is one of t he main causes of irreversible blindness worldwide. Glaucoma is usually fo und in elderly people and people with high myopia. It is often overlooked because there are no noticeable signs and symptoms at the beginning. Throu gh comprehensive promotion and IOP screening during WGW period\, the activ ity aims to increase the people awareness to glaucoma and the importance o f the regular eye-check.\n\nAccording to Dr. Long-kuang Lin\, President of TAO\, glaucoma is a major issue in global blindness prevention. If not ac tively diagnosed\, the middle or terminal stage is when signs and symptoms would appear. Therefore\, it is necessary to actively promote to the publ ic the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma.\n\nGlaucom a patients increased by nearly 70% in one decade: Taiwan BNHI statistics\n \nAccording to the 2013 BNHI (Bureau of National Health Insurance) statist ics\, there were totally 310\,000 patients seeking medical attention for g laucoma\, with an increase by nearly 70% since the past decade. In additio n\, 27% of them were young people aged 10~49. That is\, one out of every f our glaucoma patients was a youth on average. According to Dr. Da-wen Lu\, Chairman of TGS\, the rise of awareness is the cause of increase in glauc oma patients. More and more people are diagnosed with glaucoma at an earli er stage because of their active consultation and screening and the advanc ement of examination instruments. High myopia and eye overuse also account for glaucoma. As myopia is very common in Taiwan and young people use com puters\, communication products and consumer electronics very often\, eyes age quickly due to overuse\, thus giving rise to glaucoma in younger ages .\n\nDr. Da-wen Lu emphasized\, as the glaucoma attack rate is about 2%\, there should be 450\,000 glaucoma patients in Taiwan accordingly. This sug gests that there are 150\,000 potential/latent glaucoma patients remain un discovered. Particularly\, if glaucoma is a family history\, the incidence rate is 7-9 times higher. Therefore\, those from a family with glaucoma h istory should begin screening at 18\, and ordinary people are advised to r eceive glaucoma screening once a year from 35 years old.\n\nScreening pote ntial glaucoma patients with free IOP check\n\nThe eye-care activity for W orld Glaucoma Week this year was organized in the form of Glaucoma Fair he ld at Yongkang Park in Taipei City on March 8 to provide citizens with fre e IOP check. The activity began at 10:00 a.m. and attracted many people li ning up for the test. The “Beat Invisible Glaucoma” game was also arra nged to remind citizens to fight glaucoma actively.\n\nAmong citizens taki ng the IOP test\, TOS conducted a random survey to produce statistics on t he incidence rate of ocular hypertension (IOP over 21 mmHg). Of a populati on of 296 respondents\, eight had IOP over 21 mmHg (normal value)\, accoun ting for 2.7% of total. This figure almost coincides with the 2% world inc idence rate of glaucoma\, and female has a higher incidence rate than male . In terms of age group\, 29% respondents with ocular hypertension are age d 10~49\, which is close to BNHI’s 27%. All these suggest that we need t o view seriously the lowering age of glaucoma patients.\n\nTOS also urged that as glaucoma usually develops progressively over a long time\, regular eye examination and IOP check are the only ways to prevent glaucoma. They also hope that all citizens can get involved in glaucoma prevention\, to eliminate this blindness-causing eye disease.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFig. 1. Glaucoma Fair\, hold at the first day of WGW in Taipei\, attracted over t housand participants and increase their disease awareness about glaucoma.\ n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFig. 2. The free IOP check offers in Glaucoma Fair in order to safeguard eye health and over 400 persons were screened.\n CATEGORIES:Public educational LOCATION:Yongkang Park\, Section 2\, Xinyi Road\, Daan District\, Taipei\, Taiwan GEO:25.0339461;121.52845960000002 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Section 2\, Xinyi Road\, Da an District\, Taipei\, Taiwan;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Yongkang Park:geo :25.0339461,121.52845960000002 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Amsterdam X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Amsterdam BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20141026T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR