What is retinitis pigmentosa and does Amar Latif’s condition cause total blindness?
THE possibility of losing your sight may sound scary, but there are ways to make your life easier if your eyesight is deteriorating.
TV star Amar Latif is a British entrepreneur and presenter who speaks about his battle with retinitis pigmentosa, and has even created a tour company for visually impaired tourists.
What is retinitis pigmentosa?
Retinitis pigmentosa is a genetic disorder that affects the eyes and causes loss of vision.
It’s inherited from parents and symptoms include difficulty seeing in the dark and a decreased peripheral vision.
The earlier symptoms are usually spotted in childhood, and as the condition gets worse, the retinal cells stop working and eventually die, meaning that your eyes cannot process the light that enters it.
According to the NHS, it affects around one in every 3,000-4,000 people.
Can it cause total blindness?
While complete blindness is uncommon, the condition does steadily worsen, causing more severe sight loss.
After night and peripheral vision has been affected, it tends to affect reading, colour and central (straight-ahead) vision.
The age at which symptoms start varies, but the deterioration is generally very slow, and often takes years.
How is it treated and is there a cure?
At the moment, there is no cure for retinitis pigmentosa, but there are a number of treatments to slow down the progression of the disease.
Mobility training can teach people to use a cane or guide dog, and there are special glasses lenses to magnify central vision.
There are also computer programs that read text out loud, and portable lighting devices to adjust a dim environment.
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Who is Amar Latif?
Amir Latif is a British entrepreneur, television presenter, actor, director, traveller, and motivational speaker - and has retinitis pigmentosa.
He founded Traveleyes, which is an international air tour operator company, specialising in serving blind travellers – as well as those with good vision.
It was established in 2005, and Amar’s goal was to make sure that visually impaired travellers would still be able to travel the world.
Amar even acts as a tour guide on behalf of the company.