Diabetes No Longer Leading Cause of Blindness in Newcastle

Mon, 18 Jan 2010
Diabetic retinopathy is not the leading cause of blindness amongst Newcastle’s working age population any more, due to a pioneering retinal screening programme initiated by Diabetes UK funded researchers in the 1980s.

Professor Roy Taylor at Newcastle University discovered that diabetic retinopathy was the second most common cause of blindness in the Newcastle District between 2001 and 2005, differing from national data highlighting that diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of blindness across the UK, in the working-age population.

In 1986, Diabetes UK funded Professor Roy Taylor to test the feasibility of using a retinal camera to screen people with diabetes for retinopathy. To reach the maximum number of people as possible, the eye camera was mounted in a second-hand ambulance that visited diabetes clinics in and around Newcastle upon Tyne.

This exciting work leads to the provision of vital retinal screening services in areas from Dundee to Hemel Hempstead and Belfast to Norwich.

Newcastle’s screening programme developed by Professor Taylor and colleagues in 1986 has achieved near-comprehensive population coverage since 1996.

Sight can be saved in most cases. If retinopathy is identified early enough, through retinal screening, and treated adequately, blindness can be prevented in the majority of those at risk.

It is therefore vital that we put in place the right screening programmes and that ensure that everyone with diabetes over the age of 12 has access to yearly retinal screening.

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