MaldiCare Clinic and Dive Desk, a dive shop in Malé City, has conducted the world’s first awareness dive for glaucoma.

Dr. Devin Prabhakar from Divya Prabha Eye Hospital in Trivandrum, who is a visiting consultant at MaldiCare had talked about the irreversible illness, which goes undetected by over half the patients that have it because it does not have any early symptoms and is thus called the ‘silent thief of sight’.

Dr. Prabhakar had checked the eyes of eighteen divers who submerged near the 4-meter sea wall off of Feydhoo Finolhu at 08:00 on Friday, as part of the awareness dive.

“High eye pressure may exist without noticeable symptoms so many people do not even know that they have the disease. When symptoms do become noticeable, it's usually very late and significant loss of vision would have occurred. It is estimated that 4.5 million persons globally are blind due to glaucoma and that this number will rise to 11.2 million by 2020” Dr. Phabakar said at the event.

Dive Desk’s Managing Director Adam Ashraf had inaugurated the dive.

“The dive aims at creating awareness of the potentially blinding disease and help save sight” MD Ashraf said in his speech.

Like any condition of the eye, divers with glaucoma can be sensitive to pressure underwater, and usually need to wait at least two months after surgery for the condition before doctors can deem it safe for them to dive.