Eye diseases rising to alarming level in children: Dr Wajid Ali Khan

Lahore:  Eye diseases like Glaucoma, Cataracts, and cancer of Retina has been rising among children due to lack of healthcare facilities and low level of awareness, a leading eye care hospital announced.

Parents and teachers should get some information which can help them keep an eye on signs of vision problems in kids for timely treatment as healthy eyes and vision are a critical part of kids’ development, it said.

By the time people visit doctors for symptoms of some diseases, it might already be too late, said Chief Consultant Al-Shifa Eye Trust Dr Wajid Ali Khan while briefing the students at Institute of Ophthalmology.

Vision screening can be part of child’s routine check-ups if the problems are noted or not, he said adding that comprehensive eye exams by an eye care professional should not be avoided.

Most of the time, vision problems aren’t obvious, and the best way to catch issues early is through vision screenings, he added.

“I will strongly recommend screening at school level that can prevent blindness,” said Dr Wajid Ali Khan.

He said that there are many eye conditions and diseases that can affect a child’s vision therefore every new-born should be checked thoroughly at the age of 14 days and treated immediately in case of any problem. Any delay can result into permanent blindness, he warned.

Dr Wajid said that the main problem in treating children is non-availability of trained doctors therefore we have embarked upon a programme to train doctors and paramedics at home while providing the facility to doctors from Afghanistan, Egypt and Bangladesh.

On average, Al-Shifa Trust has been treating 100 children per day free of cost while we have set a target of 200 children per day for the next year and we will have the capacity to check and treat 500 children daily within three years’ time, he informed.

It may be mentioned that a World Health Organisation report says that the number of people around the world with visual impairment is 285 million, of these; 246 million have low vision while 39 million are blind.