World Sight Day: ‘84% of blindness in Nigeria are avoidable’

Speaking during an event organised by the hospital to mark the 2014 World Sight Day, Adejor noted that the result of the National Blindness Survey conducted from 2005 to 2007 showed that the prevalence of blindness in people who are aged 40 year and older was 42% and 0.78% in all ages.According to him, the […]

Speaking during an event organised by the hospital to mark the 2014 World Sight Day, Adejor noted that the result of the National Blindness Survey conducted from 2005 to 2007 showed that the prevalence of blindness in people who are aged 40 year and older was 42% and 0.78% in all ages.
According to him, the number of operable cataract in Nigeria was estimated at 400,000, which he said is expected to increase by 43% (600,000) in 2020 if cataract coverage of the country remains unchanged. Recent data indicates that approximately 285 million people worldwide live with low vision and blindness.
“Out of these, 39 million people are blind while 246 million have moderate-severe impairment. 90% of the blind people live in low income countries. It is estimated that 19 million children worldwide are visually impaired,” he said.

To usher in Universal Eye Health, he stressed the need to train more eye care professionals such as ophthalmologists, optometrists, ophthalmic nurses and optical dispensing technicians among others.
Earlier in his key note address, the Chairman of National Eye Centre, Professor Chike Anibeze appealed to legislators, state and local government councils as well as well-to-do members of the society to sponsor outreach programmes in their communities so that trained personnel can reach every nooks and crannies of the State and the country at large.
Advocating for a special funds for prevention of blindness programmes, he appealed to the Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria (OSN) to raise their Blindness Prevention activities as well as advocacy in raising funds for the purpose.