May is Macula Month - Early Action Saves Sight

The end of May marks the conclusion of Macula Month, our annual awareness program.

This has been my first Macula Month as CEO for Macular Disease Foundation Australia and I believe we have made some real inroads in raising awareness of macular disease and representing the voice of the community to Government.

Macula Month started with the launch of our new economic modelling report, Investing to Save Sight: Health and Economic Benefits of Improving Macular Disease Treatment Persistence.

Macular Disease Foundation Patron, Ita Buttrose, AC OBE, officially launched the report at the NSW State Library where we were joined by many people representing all aspects of the macular disease community.

Currently, 80,000 Australians receive regular anti-VEGF eye injections to retain vision and prevent blindness. Since 2007, eye injections have saved the sight of countless Australians living with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular oedema. However, we know that 20% of people will stop treatment in their first year, and 50% of people will stop their eye injections within 5 years, putting them at risk of severe vision loss or blindness.

The Investing to Save Sight report shows that investment by State, Territory and Federal governments to increase treatment persistence by 25% will save the sight of an additional 22,000 vulnerable Australians and contribute up to two billion dollars to the government’s bottom line over the next decade… Read more