We are now in Lockdown 5.0, cooped up in our houses with our family and friends. We share multiple household chores among ourselves, make provisions for the home together, and divide the work. But what about the elderly people who live alone or with their elderly spouses as their children live separately in India or abroad? How do they manage all these things along with having a chronic health condition or visual impairment? During these times of lockdown, where elderly people are struggling to keep themselves safe and manage their household work, it becomes difficult for them to visit doctors or step out of the house to take their regular medications and do routine check-ups.
In India, almost 35% of the elderly population has some form of elderly impairment. One such debilitating retinal disease is Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Even though AMD is irreversible, Elderly patients with Age-related Macular Degeneration often become blind if it is not treated on time. AMD is described mostly by the development of abnormal blood vessels beneath the macula, which is the middle part of the retina. AMD symptoms are often unclear and are often dismissed as indicators of old age.
As per the recent guidelines released by the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS), during the lockout, patients on anti-VEGF injections may need to visit their doctors for treatment. AIOS has classified this treatment as an emergency procedure (< 1-week waiting time) for patients who have no vision in one eye and as a semi-emergency situation (1-3 weeks) for patients with macular edema or stable AMD.
Some of the things people and elderly patients with Age-related Macular Degeneration can do to keep themselves safe and healthy during COVID-19 lockdown are:
- Be connected with the doctor.
- Always be compassionate with the elderly.
- Keep a close eye on symptoms with the use of Amsler Grid.
- Remove all the hazardous objects from your home.
- Improve lighting in your home.
- Remove all the hazardous objects from your regular path of walking and working around the house.
- Maintain a healthy diet and take all your regular medications.
- Seek help from your relatives and neighbors.
It is important to check upon elderly members of our family who live, relatives, or neighbors as they are struggling during the lockdown. They feel alone and helpless.
