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Posted on Oct 02, 2002, 6 a.m.
By Bill Freeman
A few drops of an enzyme and an inexpensive pair of glasses could one day help to restore sight to the millions of people in developing countries who have lost their sight to cataracts. People suffering from cataracts need surgery to remove them, although in developing countries, where the disease has blinded an estimated 18-million people, surgery is not an option for the vast majority of people.
A few drops of an enzyme and an inexpensive pair of glasses could one day help to restore sight to the millions of people in developing countries who have lost their sight to cataracts. People suffering from cataracts need surgery to remove them, although in developing countries, where the disease has blinded an estimated 18-million people, surgery is not an option for the vast majority of people. However, Dr. Louis Girard discovered that injecting a few drops of a pancreatic enzyme into the affected eye can chemically displace cataracts. A small pilot study of the treatment restored sight in 80% of those treated. Researchers are now trying to find an agent that does not have to be injected. Girard predicts that the treatment, which is estimated to cost just $3 per person, will become the "simplest and most inexpensive way of curing cataract blindness."
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 1st August 2001
