Kids Research Express

Macular Degeneration, leading cause of irreversible vision loss in the United States. This incurable condition attacks the central portion of the retina, the part of the eye that receives light patterns and transmits them to the brain. Macular degeneration progressively damages or destroys the part of vision used for reading and seeing fine details, while leaving the peripheral vision generally unaffected. People who have this disorder develop an area of vision loss that increases in diameter until they are unable to read or even see groups of two to three words at normal reading distance. Macular degeneration usually develops in both eyes, with one eye generally more affected than the other. Although children can develop forms of macular degeneration such as Stargardt's disease, 99 percent of the cases occur in older people. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) may affect as many as 15 million Americans over the age of 50, and one-fifth of people over 75 show at least som

Thalidomide, drug introduced in 1953, initially prescribed for its sedative properties and widely used by women to alleviate the nausea and vomiting common in the early stages of pregnancy. Thalidomide gained notoriety in 1961 when it was found to cause severe malformations in the growing fetus such as stunted development or the complete absence of limbs. More than 10,000 children were born with these disabling abnormalities before the drug was taken off the market. This disaster triggered more rigorous government regulations for drug testing. Today thalidomide is used in the treatment of leprosy, and experimentally in bone-marrow transplant patients and certain immune system disorders. HISTORY While its commercial distribution was halted, thalidomide continued to be used in experimental studies for a variety of diseases. A series of studies beginning in the mid-1960s showed that thalidomide was effective in treating a leprosy-related disorder, erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL).