Summary:
V Nilesh ByExpress News ServiceHYDERABAD: A once less-known condition that causes blindness among premature babies, known as Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP), is now being considered an epidemic by ophthalmologists. The researchers in their study point out that the problem of RoP has reached ‘epidemic proportions’. The study titled ‘Changing patterns of early childhood blinding conditions presenting to a tertiary eye centre: The epidemic of retinopathy of prematurity in India’, also reports that there was a 19-fold increase in babies requiring RoP screening during the same period. In the year 2000, premature babies constituted only 4.5 per thousand children screened for RoP at the institute’s outpatient department. Premature babies do not have fully-developed blood vessels in their retina, which continue to develop even after one month of delivery..