Bill Harvey: A new direction for nystagmus

It was good to hear about a breakthrough in the treatment of nystagmus earlier this week.

Nystagmus has been a commonly met problem in eye care over the years, and approaches in management have tended toward prevention and minimisation. Nystagmus has many causes and those related to environmental hazards have largely been addressed. Even before the demise of the mining industry in the UK, miners’ nystagmus, caused by a lack of light stimulus over many years, had been tackled by better working conditions.

Nystagmus caused by toxins are also less common. Once a hazard of mercury poisoning, the restriction of use of quicksilver in industries such as millinery has also seen a decline in such variations of the condition. Sadly, this is not the case globally, and illegal discharge of mercury into local river sources has caused widespread neurological damage, including nystagmus, in some developing countries in recent decades.