Diabetic retinopathy on the increase in Ireland

The group Diabetes Action has warned that the dramatic increase in cases of diabetic retinopathy in Ireland means that every week on average a diabetes patient goes blind in the country.
Diabetic retinopathy, the most common type of diabetic blindness and one of the main causes of adult blindness in general, results from swelling, leaking or abnormal growth in retinal blood vessels, although problems with vision may go unheeded during its early stages.
Data from the National Council for the Blind Ireland (NCBI) show that registrations for diabetic retinopathy have doubled since 2003, and that there are nearly 200,000 diabetics in Ireland, making annual screening for diabetic retinopathy essential. All diabetes patients can develop the eye condition, and the longer that someone is diabetic, the greater the risk they have of developing it.
The group has also claimed that the planned National Retinopathy Screening Programme has still not gone live, and are concerned that it may not now start until at least next year. The screening programme will provide diabetes-specific retinal examinations; it is believed that around 10 per cent of unscreened diabetes patients in Ireland could be found to have the condition when tested by an ordinary eye test, but that retinal screening could halve this amount through identification and earlier treatment.