There could be a blindness epidemic in the UK as the grossly underestimated progressive eye conditions are being faced by the UK.

The number of people who have advanced age-related macular degeneration, AMD, were estimated by a research and the report is based on this. Central vision is due to a part of the retina that is at the back of the eye and AMD affects this part.

In the entire world this is the most common cause of age-related sight loss. About 370,000 people in the UK are registered as blind or partially sighted and 50 per cent of them are believed to be affected by AMD.

In about 2.4 per cent of the UK population AMD is seen in the last stage, according to the study and this makes it 513,000 cases and by 2020 this figure is set to go up by one-third.

The study was carried out by researchers from the University of London and was funded by the Macular Diseases Society. The government was urged to give more priority to AMD by a spokesperson for the society.