Eye Care Week aim was to highlight conditions that affect the eye such as diabetes and glaucoma but the highlight of this event was keratoconus – this is a poorly understood condition which seems to affect people in the Caribbean more than the US or Europe. It distorts the front of the eye, so that sufferers can only see well with contact lenses and not glasses. However, many people find the rigid contact lenses (RGPs) that help to correct vision very uncomfortable and find they cannot wear them.

This was highlighted in the keratoconus clinic sessions in Sangre Grande during Eye Care Week. Many of the patients seen in the clinic had very poor vision – down to just counting fingers at 0.5m. Although RGPs could have helped, they were intolerant of them and since they could not see through glasses either, their lives are severely impacted by their condition.

In the clinics, soft lenses for keratoconus were fitted to nearly all patients which allowed many to see for the first time in years. They were also assessed for possible treatments options including the new collagen cross linking (CXL) which has been very successful in Europe. This procedure has so far been very successful in halting the progression of keratoconus and is now just starting to be available in TnT.

Keratoconus can be difficult to diagnose in its early stages. One of the best ways to diagnose it is by using topography – a system that maps the shape of the eye. Sangre Grande now has a topography machine and patients can now be referred into the Optometry Unit to Ms Petra Bridgemohan for topography and keratoconic screening.