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In Australia, little prevalence data around vision impairment exist. However, self‐reported data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017–18 National Health Survey suggest that around 800 000 people have a vision impairment or are blind (excluding uncorrected refractive errors). The leading cause of vision impairment in working‐age adults are inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) — a group of genetic conditions that primarily affect the retina. Other than one particular gene therapy for biallelic RPE65‐associated retinal dystrophy, there are no other clinically available treatments to safely prevent vision loss or restore vision for someone with an IRD.

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Authors: Eden G Robertson, Kate Hetherington, Meredith Prain, Julia Hall, Leighton Boyd AM, Rosemary Boyd OAM, Emily Shepard, Hollie Feller, Sally Karandrews, Fleur O'Hare, Kanae Yamamoto, Matthew P Simunovic, Robyn V Jamieson, Alan Ma, Lauren Ayton AM and Anai Gonzalez‐Cordero

Article Type: Perspective