Make vision counts: Be a partner for sight

Today, Thursday, October 12 is the 285th day of the year. It is a day specially designated by WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) as the World Sight Day. It’s a day for reflection; for soul-searching and a day for action. The theme for this year, to Make Vision Count.

Do you know that every five seconds someone in the world becomes blind? If you are over 45 years of age and able to read this page naturally, without any aid, you probably have a problem and you don’t know it! Don’t panic! Just read this to the end for the answer. If, at any age, you are able to read this page with or without any aid, you are exceedingly lucky, but mind you, you may still have a problem and it could be sight threatening!

About 285 million people worldwide have a vision impairment of whom 39 million are blind. I am told these are old figures. It doesn’t matter much to the individual. I can’t find your name on the list of persons with visual impairment or outright blindness? Aren’t you lucky? But a list? Yes in developed countries of the world, there is a register for persons who are blind or visually impaired. That you are not on the list does not mean you have a clean bill of health! Nigeria has no register for the blind.

Do you have children? Are they are able to see clearly with or without any visual aid? Count yourself lucky. Every minute a child becomes blind. How can you prevent your child from going blind? Imagine the effect of blindness on a child, his parents, on the society and on the nation? What can we do to help those whose have to face this predicament?

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In Nigeria, in 2008, there were over one million blind adults and more than three million people are visually handicapped. These numbers are almost double by current estimates and will continue to increase unless concerted action is taken. And the task is not that difficult. 80 per cent of this vision loss is avoidable — either preventable or treatable with currently available knowledge and technology.

In practical terms, working together, we can restore or prevent visual loss in about one million Nigerians and another four million Nigerians can be saved from uncorrected refractive error and un-enhanced low vision.

Cataract is the single commonest cause of blindness and over 800,000 adults are in immediate need of cataract surgery. This is 2017 and a considerable number of all cataract procedures are performed by quacks adding to the number of people with irreversible blindness.

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness but unlike cataract, it is a quiet destroyer of vision; there are no symptoms or signs and it is not easily recognisable until the very late stages. Glaucoma blindness is irreversible. Worse still, it is difficult to diagnose in the early stages except by trained medical experts.

A frightening two out of every 10 patients with glaucoma are below the age of 40 with grave social and economic implications. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of ophthalmologists and other eye care workers in Nigeria and getting any closer to the numbers we need is not insight because very little is being done to improve the situation.

Today, we are calling you to Make Vision Count. Get up and be counted. Join the crusade to free our country of blindness. But first, you must start with yourself and members of your immediate family. You must promise that you will not inadvertently allow yourself to contribute to the millions of the blind and visually impaired by ensuring that you and your family members have an eye examination at least once a year.

Thereafter you would be expected to help the Nigerian society using your influence, at formal and informal gatherings to persuade the authority so that the needs of eye care and prevention of blindness get the attention they deserve; help in raising awareness among members of the public, industry and business to the silent causes of preventable blindness and to participate and contribute to worthy eye care initiatives; help to put pressure on authorities and policymakers to allocate resources to eye health and by working with us to ensure all people have access to the highest possible standard of eye health care throughout Nigeria.

Make Vision Count. Stand up and be counted! Be a partner for sight! Join PASSION today. PASSION is an acronym for PARTNERSHIP FOR SIGHT INITIATIVE OF NIGERIA. Send sms to 0805 400 5447 for more information.