Prevent Blindness names first week of December 2024 Geographic Atrophy Awareness Week

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The organization will provide resources for spreading awareness and educating patients and care givers.

Doctor administering AMD Amsler grid exam Image credit: AdobeStock/RFBSIP

Image credit: AdobeStock/RFBSIP

Prevent Blindness has named the week of December 2-8, 2024, as its fourth annual Geographic Atrophy (GA) Awareness Week.

Year round, Prevent Blindness offers free educational resources on conditions that affect vision. This year the GA awareness week will include including a comprehensive fact sheet and a series of social media graphics, available in English and Spanish, a dedicated web page and expert videos. Support and funding for these resources comes from Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.1

Focus on Eye Health Expert Series

To inform GA patients and care partners, Prevent Blindness has an episode of the Focus on Eye Health Expert Series titled, "Advancements in Treatments for Geographic Atrophy," which features Rajeev S. Ramchandran, MD, MBA, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Flaum Eye Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center.1

Additional Focus on Eye Health Expert Series episodes that provide insights on GA include:

  • "Geographic Atrophy and Patient Support," featuring Prevent Blindness Ohio Past President and CEO, Sherry Williams, sharing her story as a care partner for her mother diagnosed with GA.
  • The "Geographic Atrophy" episode featuring Janet S. Sunness, MD, medical director of the Richard E. Hoover Low Vision Rehabilitation Services at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

Additional resources

Prevent Blindness offers the free resource, Living Well With Low Vision, a program providing a variety of directories, a library of self-help guides, downloadable apps including "GuideME for AMD," access to clinical trial research, and recent AMD research news.1

Additionally, the organization offers GA patients and others the Vision Loss and Mental Wellness resource from its Living Well With Low Vision program. Prevent Blindness encourages those experiencing anxiety, depression, and/or frustration around vision loss to seek support groups of others who are living with GA.1

Reference:
  1. Prevent Blindness Declares Fourth Annual Geographic Atrophy Awareness Week as Dec. 2-8, 2024. Prevent Blindness. November 26, 2024. Accessed November 27, 2024. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/prevent-blindness-declares-fourth-annual-144500437.html
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