CHICAGO—Organizations around the country as well as thousands of eyecare professionals are drawing attention to Age-Related Macular Degeneration/Low Vision Awareness Month this month.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in individuals over 50, affecting over 15 million Americans in the U.S. This devastating disease affects the central vision and impairs the ability to see normally and perform many necessary tasks such as reading and driving.

MacuHealth, LLC  is partnering with the Center for Visual Rehabilitation & Research at Henry Ford Health System and Optometry Giving Sight in an effort to promote awareness. During February, MacuHealth will be helping to raise awareness of the sight stealing condition via professional communications as well as in clinic materials for MacuHealth providers.

The efforts also extend to social media platforms. MacuHealth has committed to donating $1 for every Tweet or Facebook post hashtagged with either #AMDAwareness or #TrustTheScience to one of their two charitable partners.

The Macula Vision Research Foundation is drawing attention to the issue via its Believing is Seeing 20/20 Campaign. Since 1997, MVRF has funded more than $20 million for groundbreaking research to cure this devastating disease.

AMD Toolkits are available from AMD.org, the macular degeneration partnership, a group which offers support, information and partnerships to patients and families looking for assistance and resources.

Prevent Blindness, the nation’s oldest volunteer eye health and safety organization, is working to educate the public about the free services that the group provides. In its report on Future of Vision, Prevent Blindness estimates that AMD, which currently affects more than 2 million Americas aged 50 and older, will increase to 3.4 million in 2032 and 4.4 million in 2050.

According to the Future of Vision report, the current average age of AMD patients is 80 years old, the highest of any of the major eye diseases. As such, the increase of the population aged 80 and older will lead to rapid growth in the AMD population over the next 20 years. In addition, whites and women are at higher risk for AMD, and will continue to dominate the total affected population with AMD. Projected medical treatment costs related to AMD are currently $4.9 billion a year, with a predicted increase to almost $10 billion in 2032 and $14 billion in 2050.

The group hosts a dedicated website, “The AMD Learning Center,” found at preventblindness.org/amd, which provides a variety of educational tools including AMD risk factors, treatment options, an Adult Vision Risk Assessment tool and downloadable fact sheets.

In September of 2013, Prevent Blindness launched the online resource, lowvision.preventblindness.org. The program offers those with low vision and their caregivers a variety of tools including a self-help guide to nonvisual skills, a visual skills workbook for people with age-related macular degeneration, a guide to caring for the visually impaired, and a range of resource directories, including a searchable database of more than 1,500 paratransit services around the country.

Through its AMD Awareness Makes a Difference program, Prevent Blindness offers a free magnetic Amsler grid—a grid of horizontal and vertical lines used to monitor a person's central vision that can help identify vision abnormalities linked to AMD.The grid may be placed on items such as a refrigerator or medicine cabinet for daily use. To request a grid with instructions for use, go to: preventblindness.org.