**OT**
Hi Anthony,
Hope you don't mind my posting a letter from the Wilmer
Eye Institute to raise funds for this eye condition
that afflicts millions of children in the U.S.
If anyone can find a cure, the docs at Wilmer can.
You have personally helped children around the world,
and anyone who helps another in this world deserves
a lot of credit.
Regards,
Skane
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE MYOPIA INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION
FOUNDED BY SYLVIA N. RACHLIN
The Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Nathan G. Congdon, M.D., MPH
Director
January 29, 2001
Dear Mr. XXXXXXX:
What are the experiences of a child suffering from high myopia? What are the handicaps of this condition? What are the prospects for this child's future? These questions confront millions of children around the world, and the answers are perhaps best exemplified by the life experiences of Sylvia N. Rachlin, founder of the Myopia International Research Foundation (MIRF). Sylvia was one of those afflicted with more than simple near-sightedness. Hers was a case, typical of so many, in which eyesight did not stabilize at the end of the youthful growing period, but continued to steadily deteriorate.
One day in June 1960, Sylvia saw her ophthalmologist because the entire central vision in her right eye had gone. Her ophthalmologist told her that she had degeneration of the retina. "This often happens to myopics," he said. Stunned, Sylvia asked him to tell her about the research under way for her condition. The doctor's answer: "There is none - or practically none." It was an honest answer, but Sylvia was shocked. As she left his office, she saw children waiting, doing just what she had done, reading material that they held six inches from their noses. She vowed that those children would not grow up in a world where there was no research for their problems, no hope for their condition.
In the early 1960's Sylvia, who was by now legally blind, and her husband, Abe, visited the National Medical Library in Bethesda, Maryland, where they learned that the condition of myopia, although afflicting millions, had
been so ignored that it was lumped under “miscellaneous aliments” in medical textbooks. In 1963, Sylvia Rachlin founded the Myopia International Research Foundation, launching the first comprehensive, interdisciplinary research program to promote worldwide, coordinated scientific research on finding the causes, treatment and prevention of myopia. The Foundation held the First International Conference on Myopia in New York on September 10, 1964.
From the very beginning, Dr. A. Edward Maumenee, Director of the Wilmer Eye Institute from 1955 to 1975, was a strong supporter and friend of Sylvia and her Foundation. He served as a special advisor to, and subsequently as Chairman and Co-Chairman of the Myopia International Research Foundation. Dr. Maumenee and Sylvia Rachlin appeared together numerous times before Senate and House subcommittees, to appeal for increased federal funding for eye research from the National Eye Institute.
The Myopia International Research Foundation at The Wilmer Eye Institute
No doubt Dr. Maumenee would be thrilled that his dear friend's MIRF is now affiliated with the Wilmer Eye Institute, which has both a long-standing tradition and an active current presence in myopia research. Investigators at the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology, including Drs. Sheila West and Harry Quigley, have carried out studies quantifying the visual impact of myopia in populations from Tanzania to Taiwan to East Baltimore. Dr. Nathan Congdon, Director of MIRF in its new setting at Wilmer, has a long-standing interest in the problem of increasing rates of myopia in East Asia. The very high rates of myopia now seen in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are important because of their direct impact on vision. Furthermore, because myopic eyes are longer than their normal counterparts, a change in the shape of the eye among a large proportion Chinese subjects in their forties and younger appears likely to have a tremendous effect on a form of glaucoma called "angle closure glaucoma." This kind of glaucoma has been a major cause of blindness among Chinese in the past, and it is very dependent on the shape of the eye. Dr. Congdon has invented a new, simple and non-invasive technique, called "biometric gonioscopy," to measure structural changes in the eye that can affect the chances of developing glaucoma. It is hoped that biometric gonioscopy will not only improve our understanding of the impact of myopia on East Asian eyes, but will also lead to more rapid and accurate detection of persons at risk for angle-closure glaucoma.
Wilmer researchers are also involved in projects to prevent myopia before it affects vision. Drs. Oliver Schein and Joanne Katz have been conducting a clinical trial of contact lens wear as a means of preventing the onset of myopia among school children in Singapore. If successful, the strategies they are testing may not only prevent disability associated with myopia, but also offer the prospect of new insights into its mechanisms.
Request for Support
Research in myopia requires funding, and if you would like to provide support for this important work, contributions will be welcome in any amount. Checks should be made payable to the "Johns Hopkins University Wilmer Eye Institute," noting the "Myopia International Research Foundation" in the memo area. Contributions can be forwarded to the Wilmer Development Office, Wilmer 112,
600 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287-9015.
A pledge card and return envelope are enclosed for your convenience. Johns Hopkins University is classified as a taxexempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code. All contributors will receive a receipt from the Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine at the University, verifying the date and amount of the contribution to MIRF
Should you have any questions about your gift or about the work of the Myopia International Research Foundation, please call Susan Skinner at (410) 955-2020. All donors will be kept apprised of the exciting progress MIRF is making in carrying on the work of Sylvia Rachlin.
Sincerely,
Nathan G. Congdon, M.D., M.P.H.
Morton F. Goldberg , M.D.
Enclosures |
