20 Feb 2013

Sefhare Primary Hospital chief medical officer, Dr Godwin Mwaipopo says 75 per cent of human blindness can be prevented.

Speaking at a one-day workshop organised by the Molepolole Institute of Health Sciences ophthalmic nursing students in Sefhare, Dr Mwaipopo said if systems were well in place, blindness could be controlled.

He said it was estimated that there were 45 million blind people throughout the world while 135 million had low vision. He noted that 90 per cent of blind people lived in developing countries.

Dr Mwaipopo further said in Sefhare and surrounding areas, the leading eye condition was cataract with 54 patients per month followed by glaucoma. He called on communities to assist health care workers in their endeavour to fight blindness.

Dr Mwaipopo said if health care providers and the community could work together vision 2020 of the right to sight would be realised, adding that one of the requirements for attaining the vision was community involvement.

 Dr Mwaipopo said the main aim of the workshop was to sensitise community leaders on how to recognise and identify Vision 2020 priority conditions.

He explained that administrative authorities such as social workers and health education assistants spent most of their time visiting patients around the village, therefore they would be able to recognise patients who needed eye care.

Furthermore, he said parents and teachers also spent most of their time with children and as such, they could detect children who had eye problems and referred them to eye clinics while still early.

"Traditional healers are health care providers who are accessible in the community, people visit them for consultations on a number of illnesses including eye conditions so they can be able to recognise and refer eye condition to the eye clinic well in time," said Dr Mwaipopo. ENDS