Coimbatore : Considered as a silent vision stealer, the a study on Glaucoma incident has revealed that three to five per cent of Indians may be at the risk of the disease.

The alarming equation is that over 90 per cent of them are yet to be diagnosed, as it is a irreversible loss, if undetected and untreated, Medical Director of The Eye Foundation, Dr Chitra Ramamurthy told reporters here Friday.

This raises the alarm signals to evolve strategic protocols,adopt screening programs to detect the disease at its early onset and demands an increased awareness to be created to educate the public encouraging them to undergo routine and complete eye evaluation with stress on glaucoma detection, she said.

Worldwide 64.3 million people are affected by this disease and 2.1 million are believed to be blinded by the disease and another 4.2 million visually impaired, Chitra said, quoting different studies in India.

Approximately, 11.2 million Indians (6.48 open angle and 2.54 angle closure), above the age of 40 years are likely to be inflicted with this disease amounting to 12.8 per cent of blindness in India.

In order to create awareness and screen, the Foundation is organising a Glaucoma week from Mar 8 to 14 and contribute to early detection and management of this blinding eye disease, she said.

Besides free Evaluation for Glaucoma for all during the entire week, patients will also be given free antiglaucoma medication in this week (depending on the availability), Chitra said.