Dr Sewuese Bitto, Consultant Ophthalmologist, Garki Hospital, Abuja, on Wednesday, said the hospital would offer free eye treatment for residents of the FCT to commemorate 2016 World Glaucoma Week.
Bitto told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the free eye treatment would hold from March 7 to 11.
She said that the hospital would also hold health talks during the period to educate the public and increase awareness about the effects of glaucoma, risk factors and how to prevent the disease.
World Glaucoma Week (WGW) held every year is a joint global initiative of the World Glaucoma Association (WGA) and the World Glaucoma Patients Association (WGPA).
It is meant to raise awareness about glaucoma, what it does to the sight, and how it might affect an individual.
Bitto noted that presently in Nigeria many persons were going blind from glaucoma and many more were living with the disease with little or no access to proper health care.
She said that many persons were still unaware that the glaucoma disease had no cure and its damage to the eye was irreversible, hence the need to continually increase awareness about the disease.
“According to the Nigerian National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey conducted in 2005 to 2007 the proportion of individuals with glaucoma in Nigeria is 50 per cent.
“If another survey is conducted the figure may be more. No survey has been carried out since then to determine if various intervention methods have helped to reduce or control the disease.
“We do not even have enough optometrists and ophthalmologists in the country that can adequately cater for glaucoma patients in the cities not to talk of rural communities.
“We need to reach out to these people, increase awareness about the disease and encourage them to take themselves for regular check in the hospital,” she said.
Bitto described glaucoma as a chronic …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
