India fast emerging as world’s diabetic retinopathy capital; experts unveil new national screening guidelines

He said they have updated the 2015 manual on DR, a silent yet steadily rising cause of avoidable blindness, to align with current best practices.“We want to drive nationwide awareness, strengthen clinical capacity, and reinforce the message that vision loss from diabetes is preventable with timely action,” said Dr Saini.Dr Vishali Gupta, President at Vitreo Retinal Society India, PGI, Chandigarh, said, “India is not only the diabetic capital of the world but also the world capital for diabetic retinopathy. But we are not doing anything about it. Diabetic retinopathy should be included in the National Diabetes Program. So far, the focus is on screening. Our focus should be on DR because it affects the economically productive age group, those in their forties and younger.”“By prioritising timely and systematic screening, we can identify the disease much earlier, significantly improving outcomes. Evidence shows that early intervention can halve the risk of severe vision loss, and these guidelines translate that evidence into actionable practice across all levels of care,” she told this paper.According to Dr R Kim, CMO at Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, “Every patient who has diabetes is at risk of developing diabetic retinopathy. The sheer number is huge. People with diabetes don’t know when they will develop it. So that’s why we insist that they should get their eyes screened at least once a year.”The guidelines recommend screening right at the time of diagnosis for type 2 diabetes.“If we start creating awareness on having a regular eye checkup for everyone, then I think we will be able to prevent DR and other eye diseases, which can cause people to go blind,” said Dr Gupta.According to the 2023 Indian Council of Medical Research-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study, there are an estimated 101 million people in India with diabetes, 136 million pre-diabetics and 315 million people with hypertension in 2021.Experts said the number could exceed 125 million by 2045.Among them, nearly 6-7 per cent, or approximately four to six million individuals, are already at risk of sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy.



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