Dear doctor;

My boyfriend is colour blind. If he can, he wants to get it corrected. But everywhere I look for information, I just get tests for colour blindness. I was wondering if there’s any way of correcting colour blindness.

Maris, Kibagabaga.

Dear Maris,

It is unfortunate that a young man is suffering from color blindness. Color blindness is a condition where one has problem seeing red, blue, green colours or a combination of these. Some may have problem perceiving only one colour. It is very rare that a person may see no colours at all. Men are mostly the sufferers whereas it is rare in women. It occurs due to absence or abnormal functioning of cone cells in the retina which are responsible for perception of colour. 

The majority of these cases are hereditary and occur due to genetic defects. They occur since early childhood affecting the learning process of a child. Few cases may occur because of injury to the eye or disease conditions like macular degeneration, retinopathy, cataract, among others. Unfortunately, there is no treatment for colour blindness. Colored tinted glasses are made by certain companies which help one to see colors better. Gene modifying treatment is on way and maybe available easily sometime in future.