Within the framework of Childhood Myopia Awareness Week, a pathology that affects people’s distance vision, it was announced that in recent years there has been an increase in people who suffer from it. In the case of children, it is at the beginning of school where it is most detected. In San Juan, ophthalmologist Guadalupe Sánchez, professional at the Veja Moreno clinic, spoke with HUARPE DIARY and commented on the symptoms, detection, treatment and causes of the pathology.
From the Argentine Society of Ophthalmology, this campaign to raise awareness of childhood myopia was launched. “This disease occurs in all age ranges and can generally begin at 6 years of age, where it increases rapidly until 12 years of age. From there, it continues to increase, but not so quickly,” said the professional.
Ophthalmologist Guadalupe Sánchez spoke about raising awareness of childhood myopia.
Concern among professionals has arisen in recent times due to the speed with which this condition advances, attacking more and more people. “Today it has been seen that the levels of myopia have increased worldwide. In 2002 there were approximately 250,000 people who had this pathology and these values increase by 7% each year. It is expected that by the year 2050, half of the population will be myopic,” said the ophthalmologist, who also added that this will become the first cause of blindness.
The San Juan professional mentioned that the symptoms are quite visible, since it is the difficulty of seeing from a distance. Early detection of this pathology occurs, since children express this to their parents once they have begun the schooling stage, so their treatment may be faster to recover 100% vision or not. let this disease progress. “Once these symptoms are detected and brought to the consultations, we detect them with the new technologies we have,” said Sánchez.
The use of cell phones and screens
The use of screens at an early age largely influences children to have myopia. “Awareness is for this reason, since it has been seen that myopia can be caused by stimulating close vision too much, so the screen would come in to stimulate near vision,” commented the ophthalmologist.
He added that the Argentine Society of Ophthalmology has published the times when children can be exposed to screens. “From 0 to 2 years old that are not exposed to screens. From 2 to 5 years it should be one hour a day and from 6 years old it should be in consensus with the parents,” said Sánchez.
The use of screens at an early age is one of the main causes of childhood myopia.
Finally, he commented on the treatments that can be performed once myopia is detected. “The first step is to give them a correction with glasses so that they can lead a life of seeing well and with good quality. Many types of treatments are now being done, among the most common are the use of a type of drops, which is done with a drug called atropine. The droplet is placed once a night and this stops the progression of myopia, stops the progression of myopia,” he concluded.
Tips
The advice that the professional gave during awareness week is that “children spend more time outdoors, more exposure to sunlight, doing physical activities. “It is good advice and it also encourages the child not to spend so much time on screens,” she concluded.
