On the Italian news program Tg1, Prof. Stirpe supports sight checks at pre-school age

The subject of prevention was discussed during today’s edition of the TG1-health program by Professor Mario Stirpe. He underscored the importance of sight checks for children of pre-school age to prevent or cure vision defects which, if found in time, can be treated or even eliminated before the onset of symptoms.

The defects include amblyopia: an alteration in seeing space which occurs during the first few years of life. The main effect is insufficient vision acuity and one eye can be considered amblyopic if there is a 3/10 difference compared to the other eye or less than 3/10 vision. About 2% of the population is affected by lazy eye syndrome and 4-5% of children, in particular.

For years, the Commissione Difesa Vista has been promoting the subject of prevention and commissioned an ad hoc Customized Research & Analysis from which it emerged that over half the children in Italy start school without ever having had an eye test.

The best remedy available today for the protection of the precious gift of sight is prevention: by taking children to a specialist at an early age, it could be easy to keep some defects under control or even eliminate them.