Date:13/03/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/03/13/stories/2006031321420400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Project launched to prevent blindness in children

Staff Reporter

The Lions hospital-ORBIS collaborative programme will focus on five districts

PRECAUTION: Children being checked for eye problems after the inauguration of Makkala Nethra Jyothi in Bangalore on Sunday. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE: Minister for Health and Family Welfare R. Ashok on Sunday inaugurated a collaborative project under the Makkala Nethra Jyothi between Lions Superspeciality Eye Hospital and ORBIS International, U.S., to control and prevent avoidable childhood blindness here.

This collaborative project is arguably the first of its kind in the State to control and prevent childhood blindness. Part of this project is to establish a state-of-the-art Department of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus to serve the population of 20 million. The outreach programme will focus on five districts, Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Kolar, Hassan and Chamarajnagar. Incidentally, the State has the highest number of people suffering from avoidable blindness in the country.

Under the Makkala Nethra Jyothi project, the superspeciality eye hospital has so far screened 27,792 schoolchildren, treated 4,085 children with varying paediatric eye diseases and performed 258 eye surgeries. As many as 155 of these were vision restoration surgeries. Under the project, all students of blind schools in the State are being examined.

ORBIS is a non-aligned, not-for-profit global development organisation, with its mission to preserve and restore sight by strengthening the capacity of local partners in their attempt to prevent and treat avoidable blindness. In the last six years, ORBIS has started 17 child friendly paediatric eye care centres in the country. Apart from India, ORBIS is active in Ethiopia, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Bulgaria and Pakistan.

About 1.1 per cent of the population in India suffer from avoidable blindness; approximately 12 million are blind in the country. There are about 12,000 ophthalmologists in the country, but the majority of them live and work in urban areas. Fifty per cent of blindness is preventable or treatable but there is a lack of trained paediatric ophthalmic professionals as well as essential equipment.

Of India's 900 hospitals, only 10 have paediatric ophthalmic units, and there are only 150 paediatric ophthalmologists in the country to look after the country's 400 million children, say experts.

Major blinding childhood eye diseases prevalent in India are corneal scarring due to Vitamin A deficiency, measles, ophthalmia neonatorum, use of harmful traditional medicines, whole eye globe lesions, cataract, glaucoma, retinal diseases and trauma. According to the experts, refractive error is responsible for visual impairment in 9.2 million children in the country. Strabismus is also a major cause of social suffering.

Fifty per cent of paediatric blindness, say the experts, could be averted through preventive and curative medical care at various levels of health care.