10 Africans lose sight to glaucoma every hour – Expert

She disclosed this during a lecture delivered at the 2015 World Glaucoma Week in Kaduna. According to her, 17% of blindness in Nigeria is as a result of glaucoma, a silent and quiet destroyer of the eye which comes as a result of stress on the eyes. “Most patients infected with glaucoma don’t come for […]

She disclosed this during a lecture delivered at the 2015 World Glaucoma Week in Kaduna.
According to her, 17% of blindness in Nigeria is as a result of glaucoma, a silent and quiet destroyer of the eye which comes as a result of stress on the eyes.
“Most patients infected with glaucoma don’t come for treatment until the situation has gone out of control and the disease is common with the black race. The level of destruction done by the disease to the black race is higher than that of the white. The infection age among the blacks is 40 years while it is 60 years among the whites, which means that the blacks are getting blind at an early age,” she noted.
She further mentioned that the level of poverty in the country is responsible for the prevalence of the disease in the country.
“A bottle of drugs for glaucoma cost about N10,000 and that is what an average Nigerian spends on feeding his family for a whole month. So, telling such person to pay that amount for drug is like telling him/her to go back home and gradually lost his sight. Glaucoma has family history, as such, if someone’s uncle or father goes blind as a result of glaucoma, then such person is prone to the disease,” she said.
In his speech, an ophthalmologist with Barau Dikko Hospital and Coordinator of the Glaucoma Week celebration in Kaduna, Dr. Silas Amos Bakut, noted that the major problem of the blind in the past used to be cataract which he said is now under control; making glaucoma a threat to the sight of the black race.