
Ophthalmology Overview: COVID-19 Infection in Eye Cells, Vision Loss and Blindness Prevalence, and More
Highlighting the latest ophthalmology-related news reported across MJH Life Sciences™.
Highlighting the latest ophthalmology-related news reported across MJH Life Sciences™.
Mount Sinai Study Finds COVID-19 Can Infect Eye Cells
Although aerosol transmission is considered the primary cause of COVID-19 infection, findings from a study published this week by researchers at Mount Sinai indicates that the virus may also be transmitted through the eye, with the limbus especially susceptible.
As reported by
Examining adult human eye donor cells obtained via autopsy of patients who had COVID-19. in an in vitro stem cell model, analysis via RNA sequencing confirmed that the virus infected the ocular surface cells, with the protein associated with infection, ACE2, and an enzyme that facilitates viral entry, TMPRSS2, also identified.
Assessing US Prevalence of Visual Acuity Loss, Blindness
Reported by
Identifying cases across all age groups, people younger than 40 years accounted for nearly 1 in 4 cases of vision loss or blindness, with 1.6 million cases overall and 141,000 cases of blindness—13% of all people with blindness in the United States.
Notably, the estimated number of cases is a 68% increase over the previous estimate created by the 2012 Vision Problems in the US study. In delineating at-risk populations, a higher risk of vision loss was found in Hispanic/Latino and Black individuals than among White individuals, with more females than males experiencing permanent vision loss or blindness.
Inherited Retinal Disease Awareness, Benefits of Genetic Testing
This week, Prevent Blindness is holding its second annual
Affecting patients of all ages, an article by
Providing a free fact sheet on IRD, the Prevent Blindness
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