A recent study suggests that people with age-related macular degeneration, a common eye condition, could be at greater risk of getting infected and sick from COVID-19.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) happens when aging causes damage to the macula, the part of the eye that controls one’s ability to see fine detail in objects and recognize faces and colors. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), AMD is the leading cause of vision loss for older adults and affects some 11 million people in the United States.
According to a study published in December 2022 in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, growing evidence has shown that AMD is a greater risk factor for developing serious COVID-19 symptoms (25 percent) than Type 2 diabetes (21 percent) and obesity (13 percent)….