Over 1,000 children undergo free eye screening to mark World Sight Day in Jirapa

To mark the 2024 World Sight Day (WSD), Bliss Eye Care, a private eye clinic based in Wa, on Thursday, October 10, 2024, rendered free eye screening services to children in the Jirapa Municipality of the Upper West Region.

In all, a total of 1,468 children went through the screening process, out of which 205 of them have normal eyes. With 1,182 of them having issues with their sight related to medication (pathological).

Out of the number, 46 of the children were suffering from refractive errors and were given eyeglasses at no cost, with 35 of them also having cataracts and glaucoma.

Speaking on the sidelines of the screening exercise, an optometrist and Medical Superintendent of Bliss Eye Care, Dr Zakaria Al-hassan Balure, said though parents are beginning to take children’s sight issues high, more is still expected from them.

“We expect parents to still be proactive in children care. Not just paying school fees, buying them school uniforms, and books alone. But what will make them learn is the sight,” he explained.

Visual impairments have physical, emotional, social, and economic ramifications, and they play an essential role in determining one’s quality of life.

Available data showed that Ghana has about 300,000 blind people and 332,000 people having severe visual impairment.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), “more than 1.3 crores of people worldwide have vision impairment related to their work, with an estimated 350 eye injuries happening in the workplace each year.”

Among all cases of blindness, 90% of them can be avoided or treated if identified early.

Report on the 2023 Ghana Eye Health Summit also revealed that the major causes of blindness are cataract with 54.5%, Glaucoma 19.4%, Posterior Segment Disease including diabetic retinopathy 12.9% and corneal related causes 11.2%.

Read also:

East Legon: Two vehicles with occupants burnt to ashes

The post Over 1,000 children undergo free eye screening to mark World Sight Day in Jirapa first appeared on 3News.

Read Full Story