A patient organization survey found that, follow-up diagnosis of nearly 20 percent of patients with wet elderly macular degeneration, were on average, delayed by up to two months due to the fifth wave of the pandemic.
While one-third of the respondents said that their eyesight declined during the pandemic by 30 percent, some people’s conditions worsened further.
Retina Hong Kong (RHK), formerly known as Hong Kong Retinitis Pigmentosa Society, is a non-profit mutual patient aid charity organization. RHK commissioned Hong Kong Health Care Alliance to conduct a survey from May to June 2022 and successfully interviewed 200 patients within Hong Kong.
The results showed that during the fifth wave of the pandemic, 18 percent of the patients had follow-up delays due to the pandemic, with an average delay of 61 days; 35 percent of patients had vision loss, with an average drop of 30 percent, of which about 30 percent of those respondents cited their doctors, the cause of their vision loss was due to delayed treatment. In addition, 37 percent of the patients surveyed experienced worsening macular neovascular leakage.
At the moment, there are 50,000 patients with wet macular degeneration in Hong Kong.
Age-related macular degeneration is the second largest cause of visual impairment in Hongkongers. If the conditions of Neovascular AMD are not properly managed, intraocular vascular endothelial growth will lead to leakage and bleeding, which can cause permanent damage to the central vision. The condition is irreversible.
In severe cases, patients can become blind in a few days. Ophthalmologist Lee Ka-yau said, “There is no cure for wet age-related macular degeneration. It is necessary to receive timely and continuous treatment to control the condition and stabilize the patient’s vision with primarily intraocular injection treatment.
According to RHK, it is difficult for out-patients to arrange ongoing and frequent treatments while waiting for follow-ups and treatment at the Hospital Authority.
Moreover, some patients might need to use the new generation of vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors which are not currently registered in the public hospitals’ drug roster.
As a result, RHK launched the Intraocular Injection Drug Subsidy Scheme, which allows eligible Hospital Authorities out-patients to receive treatment in private clinics for up to four injections a year, while the cost of medications, injections, and preoperative examinations for patients is the same in total as the public hospital fees.
According to RHK’s statistics, over 2,100 patients have benefited from the program since its launch in 2019. The program also began covering a new generation of intraocular injection drugs at the end of 2021. The average time for participating patients to receive their first dose of intraocular injection treatment was only 12.6 days, while the average time required for the first treatment at HA was 2 months. The result was tremendously shortened by the new scheme of RHK.
RHK urges all eligible HA patients to participate in the Intraocular Injection Subsidy Scheme and receive appropriate treatment as soon as possible, to avoid blindness due to delayed treatment.
Mr. Choi, a 68-year-old patient, said he was diagnosed with wet age-related macular degeneration in his right eye in September 2021. Doctors recommended intraocular injection as treatment. However, during his treatment period, Hong Kong was hit by the fifth wave of coronavirus outbreak.
Mr Choi suspected that the two weeks delay in treatment had caused his conditions to worsen. Fortunately, resuming the treatment improved the deterioration and his condition.
Mr Choi expressed that by joining the drug subsidy scheme, he could receive treatment as quickly as he did. Even with the ongoing outbreak of the pandemic, there has not been any delay in follow-ups or treatments at the private clinic.
Choi was grateful to the subsidy scheme, which aided him in receiving eye treatment promptly and maintaining the condition of his wet age-related macular degeneration.
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