半数色覚異常中高生不知道自己視力有問題

Last month the Yomiuri News on-line reported the following:

色覚異常の中高生、半数気づかず進学・就職

　日本眼科医会は１９日、２０１０～１１年度に全国の眼科医で先天的な色覚異常と診断された９４１人に聞き取り調査をしたところ、進学や就職時期を控えた中高生（１８５人）では約半数が異常に気づかず、中には進路選択に支障が出るケースもあったと発表した。

　小学４年で行われてきた学校の色覚検査が０３年度以降、ほとんど行われなくなった影響とみられ、同会は検査の必要性を訴えている。

　調査結果によると、０３年度以降に小学４年生になった世代で、進学や就職を控える中高生では４５％の８５人が異常に気づいていなかった。

　先天性の色覚異常は男性２０人に１人、女性は５００人に１人に見られる。色を感知する細胞の異常で赤と緑が判別しにくいなどの障害が出る。かつては小学校で検査が行われてきたが、差別につながるなどの理由から、０３年度以降、学校保健法上の必須項目から削られて任意実施となった。

（2013年9月19日21時35分 読売新聞）

 (試譯文)

     The Japan Ophthalmologists Association announced on the 19th (September) that all over the country in the 2010-11 fiscal year 941 people interviewed by ophthalmologists was found to have congenital abnormal color sensation. Among the junior and senior high school students (185 persons) who had declined entering into a school of higher level or an employment, about half of them did not notice their abnormality, and there was also a case which trouble occurred in the course of selecting their future.

     The color perception test for schools conducted in the elementary school fourth years was no longer performed after the fiscal year 2003, because of the effect, the society had appealed for the need to carry on with the inspection.

     According to the results of an investigation, among the junior and senior high school students in the generation who became a fourth grader in an elementary school after the 2003 fiscal year who were not  entering into a school of higher grade or an employment, 45% or 85 people did not notice the abnormality.

     As for congenital abnormal color sensation, one person in 20 men and one in 500 women could be found. Because of the abnormalities of the cell which detected the color, there was the obstacle of being difficult to distinguish between red and green. Although the inspection had once been conducted at the elementary school, after the 2003 fiscal year, for reasons that it might lead to discrimination, it was deleted from the indispensable items on the school health laws, and the inspection became an arbitrary enforcement item.

Health checking is always useful for the young so as to find out health troubles in an early stage.