Consultant eye surgeon at the Eye Hospital and co-ordinator of childhood blindness, Dr. (Ms.) Mangala Gamage said the new cause for blindness is Retinopathy of Premature babies (ROP), a disease of the retina among prematurely born babies. With the high rate of pre-mature birth survival in the country, there has been a growing trend of blindness among premature babies.
Dr. Gamage said there is a potential of prematurely babies getting this blinding eye disorder which affects babies born before 31 weeks.
“The younger a baby is, the more likely it is the child will develop this disease which is one of the most common causes of vision loss in childhood”, she said.
During the last 12 weeks of a pregnancy, the growth of the un-born baby’s eye takes place at a rapid pace. When a baby is born in nine months, the retinal blood vessel growth is mostly complete. But if a baby is born prematurely, normal vessel growth may stop and may not receive sufficient oxygen.
“In the case of premature babies, screening is very important after 1 - 2 days after birth. We have instructed all maternity homes and hospitals to get an eye specialist to observe premature babies and their eye condition. Parents should consult an eye surgeon immediately and keep appointments and continue with the treatment as there is a risk of children developing ROP later”, Dr. Gamage said.
Continuing she said school children too were victims of serious eye-related deficiencies. “Presently refractive errors are the most common cause of eye-related problems among school children and around 400,000 students in Sri Lanka need spectacles” she added.
Dr. P. Mahipala, Deputy Director General, Public Health Services of the Health Ministry said the ministry was hoping to improve the quality of school medical services to a point where all the school children would be subjected to screening.
“There are 150,000 blind persons in the country and more than 400,000 are visually impaired. Among them around 160,000 school children suffer from serious vision problems”, he said.
Dr. Mahipala said there was a possibility of blindness being prevented in more than 80 percent of afflicted people being treated.
The Health ministry through its ‘Vision 2020’ programme is determined to eliminate avoidable blindness
by 2020. |
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