Lara Adejoro The Federal Government on Friday commenced training of eye health professionals nationwide on its Glaucoma Guideline and Toolkit. Speaking at the launch of the training, the National Coordinator, National Eye Health Programme, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Okolo Oteri, said that the guideline was developed for the programmatic and clinical management of glaucoma. Glaucoma is an eye disorder that causes visual impairment as a result of its effect on the optical nerves that take pictures from the eye to the brain due to what is known as Intraocular Pressure.
Experts say it is estimated that around two million Nigerians have glaucoma, but the tragic fact is that, out of this number, about 1.8 million are oblivious of their condition. According to Oteri, glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss globally and in Nigeria, and it is a debilitating disease with an earlier onset and a more severe course reported in persons with black history.
“The Nigeria Blindness and Vision Impairment Survey reported that 0.78 per cent of Nigerians of all ages are blind. Blindness increased significantly with illiteracy and age, with 1.
13 million (4.2 per cent) Nigerians over 40 years blind. “Glaucoma was the second most common cause of blindness, with a prevalence of five per cent and accounting for 16.
7 per cent of the burden of blindness with only 5.6 per cent knowing they had the disease, while 20 per cent were already blind,” he stated. The.