‘Regular eye check-up can help reduce blindness’

Dr Charles Amaghere of Plus National Eye Centre Abuja, said this in an interview with Daily Trust recently in Abuja, to mark the World Sight Day.He said most eye cases in Nigeria are preventable in their early stages.The ophthalmologist also said the reason for the emphasis on avoidable blindness is because of Glaucoma, which he […]

Dr Charles Amaghere of Plus National Eye Centre Abuja, said this in an interview with Daily Trust recently in Abuja, to mark the World Sight Day.
He said most eye cases in Nigeria are preventable in their early stages.
The ophthalmologist also said the reason for the emphasis on avoidable blindness is because of Glaucoma, which he described as ‘a snake thief of sight, and might get one totally blind overnight’.
He said although most eye cases he has attended to are special orders, long sight, short sight and astigmatism which mostly requires glasses for their correction, but he has also attended to a few cases of glaucoma and cataract.
“Eye cases are age related, they can be progressive and regressive, and they can also be genetic. Regular eye check-up is the only way to prevent it, I have attended to cases of amblyopic. An eye becomes amblyopic when it has become too lazy to either adjust to glasses or to surgery. This is sometimes caused by negligence or myth by some people who have negative feelings about wearing eye glasses; some people don’t even want you to touch their eyes when they know they have eye problems,” he said.
“For Glaucoma, it has no cure as surgery and drugs can not cure it. We can only reduce the pressure by judiciously using the drugs and also by eating foods reach in nutrients that help the eyes,” he added.