{"id":9368,"date":"2020-04-23T08:59:13","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T05:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=9368"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:31:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:31:00","slug":"how-african-genetic-studies-offer-hope-for-preventing-a-common-cause-of-blindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2020\/04\/23\/how-african-genetic-studies-offer-hope-for-preventing-a-common-cause-of-blindness\/","title":{"rendered":"How African Genetic Studies Offer Hope For Preventing A Common Cause Of Blindness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Glaucoma is the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736(17)31469-1\/fulltext\">most common<\/a>&nbsp;cause of irreversible blindness in the world. It\u2019s estimated that by 2040 there will be about&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aaojournal.org\/article\/S0161-6420(14)00433-3\/fulltext\">112 million people<\/a>&nbsp;in the world with glaucoma \u2013 mostly in Africa and Asia. The best that medical science can do at present is identify it early and slow or halt its progression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The disease affects the optic nerve, which normally sends signals from the eye to the brain. With glaucoma, this nerve doesn\u2019t work properly. The first sign is loss of peripheral vision. This gradually progresses to tunnel vision and, ultimately, blindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most important risk factor for developing glaucoma is having high pressure inside the eyeball. Reducing this pressure is currently the only way to treat glaucoma. It\u2019s done with eye drops, laser treatment or surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most common type of glaucoma is primary open-angle glaucoma, which typically begins in middle to older age. Visual loss is only noticeable at an advanced stage of the disease. It\u2019s more common in populations of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aaojournal.org\/article\/S0161-6420(14)00433-3\/fulltext\">African descent<\/a>&nbsp;than in those with European or Asian ancestry. In African populations it starts at an earlier age and progresses faster. The prevalence of primary open-angle glaucoma in Africans between the ages of 40 and 80 is about&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aaojournal.org\/article\/S0161-6420(14)00433-3\/fulltext\">4.2%<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cause and mechanisms underlying this condition are poorly understood. But it\u2019s known that family members of affected individuals are much\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamaophthalmology\/article-abstract\/640514\">more likely<\/a>\u00a0to get the disease. We\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jama\/article-abstract\/2753899\">conducted a study<\/a>\u00a0to identify genetic risk factors for primary open-angle glaucoma in African populations. <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-african-genetic-studies-offer-hope-for-preventing-a-common-cause-of-blindness-135714\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Glaucoma is the&nbsp;most common&nbsp;cause of irreversible blindness in the world. It\u2019s estimated that by 2040 there will be about&nbsp;112 million people&nbsp;in the world with glaucoma \u2013 mostly in Africa and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}