Keratoconus is a blinding condition affecting 1 in every 45 Maori and Pacifica children, as well as many Asian and European children too. A 30 minute treatment stops it progressing but can not reverse the damage done. Many patients with keratoconus see us at Bay Eye Care to rehabilitate their vision with complex specialty contact lenses, as their condition has unfortunately already progressed to a level that that they can’t see and function normally with standard vision correction lenses.
Local ophthalmologist and colleague of Bay Eye Care, Dr Colin Parsloe, has started a programme to screen school-aged children for the condition before they start to lose vision, so that timely preventative corneal cross-linking treatment can stop their eyes from deteriorating.
He has started a not-for-profit group Cone.org.nz to raise awareness about keratoconus, screen children for keratoconus, and arrange treatment for them in the public system.
Please visit the website cone.org.nz to learn more and to support this important venture.
Bay Of Plenty Times have written an article about one of Dr Parsloe’s patients who had a late diagnosis of keratoconus and the complications that followed, highlighting the importance of early detection. Read this here.
