• Question: Do you think that you can find a cure to blindness or at least save peoples eyesite? Why do people go blind?

    Asked by charlieloubones to Steve on 15 Mar 2011. This question was also asked by suzygeniusmiller.
    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      Hi Charlie

      The short answer is yes! But curing blindness, and saving people’s sight are two slightly different things. If someone is blind, then at the moment we don’t really have the techniques or treatments to give them their vision back, so a ‘cure’ for blindness is some years away. However, there is exciting progress in saving people’s eyesight, which means preventing them lose vision once they’ve been diagnosed with a disease. There is still a long way to go with these patients, but gene therapy, stem cell therapy and other new approaches show great promise.

      And there are many reasons why people go blind. Most often, it’s simply old age, as our eyesight diminishes along with all our senses, but diseases such as cataract (clouding of the lens) and diabetes can also cause blindness. Each different cause will need its own specific cure or treatment.

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