Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: “representatives from the Foundation Fighting Blindness are visiting congressional offices this week to discuss the…”

“representatives from the Foundation Fighting Blindness are visiting congressional offices this week to discuss the importance of funding research initiatives at the National Eye Institute. This week my colleagues received a set of paper glasses which may help them to understand what individuals suffering from retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration see. Isaac, Daria and Ilana Lidsky, young adults from my congressional district, are among the over 6 million Americans who suffer from these retinal degenerative diseases. Another 9 million Americans have pre-symptomatic signs of retinal degeneration and as the baby-boomer generation ages, diseases such as these are poised to skyrocket. Promising experiments have already been discovered in retinal transplantation and in gene and pharmaceutical therapies. However, additional funding for the National Eye Institute is urgently needed to advance these promising treatments to clinical trials. I urge my colleagues to consider how life is viewed through the eyes of those going blind and to consider an increase to the National Eye Institute at a percentage higher or equal to the other institutes of the National Institutes of Health.”