Jeffrey Kluger in Time Magazine:
It’s been a long time since Alice Charton got a good look at a human face. There are plenty of people moving through her world, of course—her husband, her friends, her doctors, her neighbors—but judging just by what she can see, she’d have to take it as an article of faith that any one person was there at all. It was five years ago that the 87-year-old retired schoolteacher, living in a suburb of Paris, first noticed her eyesight failing, with a point in the middle of her field of vision going hazy, muddy, and dim. Soon that point grew into a spot, and the spot into a blotch—until it became impossible for her to recognize people, read a book, or navigate unfamiliar places on the streets.
The cause of the problem was age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease that afflicts some 200 million people worldwide and involves a breakdown of the cells in the retina, particularly in the area known as the macula, which is responsible for central vision. AMD does not typically cause blindness, but vision can be severely impaired. As for a cure for AMD? Nonexistent.
More here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.