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'International AMD Week' aims to create awareness
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Prevent Blindness America and AMD Alliance International are launching a series of global initiatives and communications strategies to increase awareness of age-related macular degeneration prevention as part of International AMD Week Sept. 22 to 30.
Prevent Blindness America will provide free AMD information for patients including preventive steps, risk factors and treatment options at preventblindness.org/amd or at (800) 331-2020, according to a Prevent Blindness press release.
AMD Alliance International (AMDAI) is soliciting stories from patients with AMD to describe the impact of the condition on their life. The repository created can be accessed by other patients and families as well as social scientists who wish to understand the quality of life of AMD patients.
“We want people to understand that they can have a role in preventing AMD,” Narinder Sharma, president and chief executive officer of AMDAI, said in the press release.
He said prevention efforts such as regular eye exams, self-testing with Amsler grid, quitting smoking, improving diet, and controlling cholesterol and weight are behaviors that “can save the vision of millions of people. That is what makes the 2012 International AMD Week campaign so critical.”