CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) — A new study comprised of more than 100 million adults in America finds that HIV drugs may prevent vision loss. It was led by a University of Virginia doctor.

“The disease we’re studying is something called ‘dry macular degeneration.’ It affects 200 million people around the world and 10 million people in our country alone,” said Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, a UVA professor of ophthalmology and Director of the Center for Advanced Vision Science at UVA.

Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss among the elderly. Currently, there are no FDA-approved medications for macular degeneration.

“We’ve been trying to find drugs that are already approved for other diseases that might be re-purposed for this condition and the group of drugs we found that does that are a group of anti-HIV drugs called NRTI’s and found that people who take them have about a 40-percent risk reduction of getting macular degeneration,” said Ambati.

Watch the video here: https://www.cbs19news.com/clip/15182810/potential-treatment

Read more: https://www.cbs19news.com/story/43287643/hiv-drugs-may-prevent-vision-loss

Source: CBS19News