Many sufferers of Visual Snow Syndrome struggle to get a quick and accurate diagnosis but there are hopes recognition from the World Health Organisation (WHO) will improve broader medical understanding of the debilitating condition.
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00:00Steve Gillis has been playing piano for more than 50 years, but these days he finds it
00:11difficult to read sheet music.
00:12It's like looking through a mesh or a set of dots that's constantly disturbing your
00:16vision.
00:17Mr Gillis was diagnosed late last year with visual snow syndrome, a neurological condition
00:22that affects vision, balance, hearing and cognitive function.
00:25Conditions such as walking, driving, working on a computer, enjoying life, reading particularly
00:31can often be affected because your vision is not just telling you the world as it should
00:36be.
00:37Practitioners say visual snow affects 2-3% of the global population.
00:41But patients like Mr Gillis often face a long journey to diagnosis, filled with different
00:46advice.
00:47The advice was basically, hopefully your body can find a way of curing itself and good luck.
00:53It's quite common to find that people have seen five or six doctors trying to find an
00:58answer and no one can tell them because the awareness of this condition is not as wide
01:04as it should be.
01:05A group of dedicated campaigners have been pushing for greater recognition.
01:09In December last year, the WHO listed visual snow in the International Classification of
01:13Diseases.
01:14This was a victory for millions of people of all ages around the world who are affected
01:20by visual snow syndrome and their loved ones as well.
01:24It means it is now recognised as a real condition whereas it's been something that people, as
01:29I said, doubted at times.
01:31It means that there will be more research going on into it.
01:34Path to diagnosis will be simplified so they can get back into the swing of things.