As World Sight Day approaches on October 10, 2024, Chairperson of the Nigerian Optometric Affiliation, Lagos State Chapter, Dr. Gloria Okoekhian-Ogulu, have raised alarm over the over 450 million youngsters worldwide undergo from eye circumstances, whereas calling for pressing motion by the federal government to guard Nigerian youngsters from avoidable blindness.
World Sight Day is widely known each second Thursday in October and serves as a platform to advertise international consciousness on imaginative and prescient care. This 12 months’s occasion goals to encourage collective motion to make sure wholesome imaginative and prescient for all youngsters worldwide.
With the purpose of elevating consciousness in regards to the significance of youngsters’s eye well being, optometrists and eye care practitioners are calling on dad and mom, guardians, caregivers, Okoekhian-Ogulu emphasised the significance of excellent eyesight in a toddler’s total improvement, stating that imaginative and prescient performs a essential position in studying, social interplay, and progress.
“Good eyesight is significant for youngsters because it helps them be taught, develop, and work together with their friends. The attention is the window by way of which we are able to see the world,” Okoekhian-Ogulu advised LEADERSHIP.Globally, most of the 450 million affected youngsters undergo from uncorrected refractive errors, akin to nearsightedness, which might hinder academic progress however are simply treatable with prescription glasses.
Nonetheless, Okoekhian-Ogulu highlighted the persistent stigma surrounding using glasses and misinformation amongst dad and mom, which might forestall well timed intervention. As well as, some youngsters expertise gentle infections or allergic circumstances that could possibly be managed with acceptable therapies if detected early, she said.
In response to those challenges, Okoekhian-Ogulu referred to as on the Nigerian authorities to introduce a coverage mandating eye examinations for youngsters from preschool age. “If each little one undergoes a watch examination earlier than beginning faculty, we are able to detect and deal with any abnormalities early, making certain they obtain the care they should thrive,” she stated.
She urged dad and mom and academics to take accountability for monitoring youngsters’s eye well being and appealed to the federal government to create an enabling atmosphere for accessible, inexpensive eye care. “Our youngsters are the longer term, and their capacity to be taught successfully relies on their eyesight. Let’s come collectively to prioritize little one eye well being and make a distinction,” she averred.
