MIAMI, June 19, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- According to the World Health Organization, more than 5,000,000 mostly elderly blacks in the world today suffer from total incurable blindness needlessly because they lack the opportunity to get tested for glaucoma before glaucoma robs them of their sight. Dr. Bob Welsh, a Rotarian, a world-renowned eye surgeon and a leading medical missionary, sees a chance to prevent most glaucoma blindness through administering his new invention, The Welsh "Self-Test" for glaucoma, in 10,000 U.S. black churches.
Glaucoma is often called the "Sneak Thief of Sight" because most individuals with advanced blinding glaucoma are completely unaware that their side vision is being stolen from them until it is too late. Optic nerve damage due to increased pressure within the eye builds to a point of no return. This total incurable blindness in blacks doesn't have to happen, and it won't with proper mass diagnosis and treatment.
Dr. Welsh is the author of eight books on eyesight and the man behind the now-famous biennial Welsh Cataract Congresses, which met from 1969 to 1996. He sees as the solution: volunteers at 10,000 black churches who can instruct in the newest Welsh "Self-Test" for glaucoma.
Dr. Welsh said, "Elderly blacks are nine times more prone to developing blinding glaucoma than other population groups where the severe threat of total blindness from chronic glaucoma can run as high as 80,000 cases per year. Caribbean nations are at the top of the list due to the high black populations."
A new simple Welsh-Self Test can be conducted in such group settings as 10,000 U.S. black churches. It can scan 350 elderly blacks in five minutes using medical school students as instructors. Dr. Welsh's new "Self-Test" called 'Side-Vision Nasal Step' is 95% accurate at detecting blinding glaucoma. High-risk individuals with glaucoma are then referred to an area ophthalmologist for proper treatment drops.
Volunteers can train the same groups of elders to check themselves and friends on a regular basis after the initial check. This "Self-Test" involves holding one hand over each opposite eye (one at a time) and then using above 80% or below 15% finger-wiggling motion to detect reduced, or lost nose-side side-vision called a "nasal-step."
The 9,000-member American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) sees the opportunity for saving sight of as many as 80,000 new glaucoma individuals annually. The key, however, is the recruitment of volunteers to work at 10,000 U.S. black churches or door-to-door in the Caribbean Islands.
Dr. Welsh said, "I hope to enlist medical school students from the 43 best medical schools in the country. Aging blacks with white canes fill Light-Houses for the Blind throughout the Caribbean. Proper glaucoma diagnosis and treatment can change that by working with volunteer examiners at 10,000 black churches in America." Interested medical schools, black churches and volunteers may contact Dr. Welsh at www.glaucomaselftest.org to help stop preventable blindness from treatable glaucoma.