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:506@worldglaucomaweek.org DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:20150305T120000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:20150305T140000 DTSTAMP:20150409T083031Z URL:https://www.worldglaucomaweek.org/activity/2015-enhancing-sight-enhanc ing-lives-kick-off-activity-wgw-press-conference/ SUMMARY:2015 “Enhancing Sight\, Enhancing Lives” kick-off activity-WGW Press Conference 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 theme of 2015 WGW.\n\nThe kick-off activity of 2 015 “Enhancing Sight\, Enhancing Lives” eye-care campaign was launched officially to unveil the support for World Glaucoma Week (WGW). WGW is a global promotional activity of glaucoma launched by the World Glaucoma Ass ociation and World Glaucoma Patient Association to arouse the public aware ness to prevent glaucoma through global action.\n\nThe Ophthalmological So ciety of Taiwan (TOS)\, Taiwan Academy of Ophthalmology (TAO)\, Taiwan Gla ucoma Association (TGA)\, and Alcon Taiwan organized eye-care activity dur ing World Glaucoma Week (March 8~14\, 2015) to fight this eye disease caus ing irreversible blindness worldwide through publicizing the need of glauc oma prevention. Through above activity\, it generated over hundred news co verages and successfully attracted the public attentions to glaucoma issue .\n\nThose with high myopia\, elderly people\, and those with family histo ry 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 T aiwan from 2005. Glaucoma is a silent thief of the sight and it is one of the main causes of irreversible blindness worldwide. Glaucoma is usually f ound in elderly people and people with high myopia. It is often overlooked because there are no noticeable signs and symptoms at the beginning. Thro ugh comprehensive promotion and IOP screening during WGW period\, the acti vity aims to increase the people awareness to glaucoma and the importance of the regular eye-check.\n\nAccording to Dr. Long-kuang Lin\, President o f TAO\, glaucoma is a major issue in global blindness prevention. If not a ctively diagnosed\, the middle or terminal stage is when signs and symptom s would appear. Therefore\, it is necessary to actively promote to the pub lic the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma.\n\nGlauco ma patients increased by nearly 70% in one decade: Taiwan BNHI statistics\ n\nAccording to the 2013 BNHI (Bureau of National Health Insurance) statis tics\, there were totally 310\,000 patients seeking medical attention for glaucoma\, with an increase by nearly 70% since the past decade. In additi on\, 27% of them were young people aged 10~49. That is\, one out of every four 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 glau coma patients. More and more people are diagnosed with glaucoma at an earl ier stage because of their active consultation and screening and the advan cement of examination instruments. High myopia and eye overuse also accoun t for glaucoma. As myopia is very common in Taiwan and young people use co mputers\, communication products and consumer electronics very often\, eye s age quickly due to overuse\, thus giving rise to glaucoma in younger age s.\nDr. Da-wen Lu emphasized\, as the glaucoma attack rate is about 2%\, t here should be 450\,000 glaucoma patients in Taiwan accordingly. This sugg ests that there are 150\,000 potential/latent glaucoma patients remain und iscovered. Particularly\, if glaucoma is a family history\, the incidence rate is 7-9 times higher. Therefore\, those from a family with glaucoma hi story should begin screening at 18\, and ordinary people are advised to re ceive glaucoma screening once a year from 35 years old.\n\nScreening poten tial glaucoma patients with free IOP check\nThe eye-care activity for Worl d Glaucoma Week this year was organized in the form of Glaucoma Fair held at Yongkang Park in Taipei City on March 8 to provide citizens with free I OP check. The activity began at 10:00 a.m. and attracted many people linin g up for the test. The “Beat Invisible Glaucoma” game was also arrange d to remind citizens to fight glaucoma actively.\nAmong citizens taking th e IOP test\, TOS conducted a random survey to produce statistics on the in cidence rate of ocular hypertension (IOP over 21 mmHg). Of a population of 296 respondents\, eight had IOP over 21 mmHg (normal value)\, accounting for 2.7% of total. This figure almost coincides with the 2% world incidenc e rate of glaucoma\, and female has a higher incidence rate than male. In terms of age group\, 29% respondents with ocular hypertension are aged 10~ 49\, which is close to BNHI’s 27%. All these suggest that we need to vie w seriously the lowering age of glaucoma patients.\nTOS also urged that as glaucoma usually develops progressively over a long time\, regular eye ex amination and IOP check are the only ways to prevent glaucoma. They also h ope that all citizens can get involved in glaucoma prevention\, to elimina te this blindness-causing eye disease.\n\n\nFig. 1. In support of 2015 WGW \, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan\, the Taiwan Academy of Ophthalm ology\, the Taiwan Glaucoma Association and Alcon Taiwan joined hands in “Beat Invisible Glaucoma” advocacy in the press conference on March 5. \n\n\n\nFig. 2. News reporters were attracted by the glaucoma news and cre ated the huge SOV.\n CATEGORIES:Media coverage LOCATION:Sheraton Grande Taipei Hotel\, 12 Zhong Xiao East Road\,\, Taipei\ , Taiwan GEO:25.0329694;121.56541770000001 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=12 Zhong Xiao East Road\,\, Taipei\, Taiwan;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Sheraton Grande Taipei Hotel:g eo:25.0329694,121.56541770000001 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