80 percent of blindness preventable, treatable – Ophthalmologist

Nigeria and other African countries have a huge burden of people with moderate to severe visual impairment with over 90 percent of visually impaired people worldwide concentrated in the continent. A Consultant Ophthalmologist and Chief Operating Officer, Me Cure Eye Centre, an arm of Me Cure Healthcare Limited, Dr. Adegboyega Alabi, disclosed this during the […]

Nigeria and other African countries have a huge burden of people with moderate to severe visual impairment with over 90 percent of visually impaired people worldwide concentrated in the continent.

A Consultant Ophthalmologist and Chief Operating Officer, Me Cure Eye Centre, an arm of Me Cure Healthcare Limited, Dr. Adegboyega Alabi, disclosed this during the free eye screening programme and treatment organized by the clinic to commemorate the World Sight Day.

The day is celebrated every second Thursday of October to promote good eyesight and prevent blindness while this year’s vision is themed: ‘Make Vision Count’.

To celebrate the day, Me Cure as part of its social intervention scheme conducted free screening for patients on Friday with over 2000 people targeted while 50% and 25% discounts were given for patients requiring glasses and eye drops respectively.

The Consultant Ophthalmologist also said that 80 percent of blindness cases were not only preventable but treatable even as he warned against patronizing quacks to do couching for those suffering from Glaucoma which is one of the leading causes of blindness.

He said 30 million people are blind worldwide while 260m have one form of visual impairment or the other according to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).

Alabi said, "It is a huge burden and we all need to join hands together to see how we can save our world from this plague of blindness. If somebody is blind, that person’s life is shattered, that person’s life is not complete. Individuals that are blind, their lifespan is short compared to those with good vision.

"For our own environment, we discovered that 90 percent of blind people are in developing world, of course Africa and Nigeria inclusive. That also brings to the fore the importance of celebrating this occasion in this part of the world.

"At Me Cure, we decided this year to celebrate the 2017 World Sight Day by organizing free eye screening programme for the general public and that is what we are doing today."

Also speaking, Head of Strategy and Commercial, Me Cure, Dr. Kunle Megbuwawon said the company has also developed a programme which gives discounted medical screening for people to know their health status.

According to him, the world sight celebration was to create awareness on the import of going for preventive medical treatment.