'Extra care required for children’s eyesight'

Ophthalmologists highlighted the necessity of extra care to maintain the health of children’s eyes or the eyesight.

They came up with this observation during a roundtable held at the seminar hall of Prothom Alo office in Karwan Bazar area of the capital on Wednesday.

Sightsavers, an international non-government organisation (NGO) working with eyesight health, organised this roundtable in association with Prothom Alo as the media partner.

Today, 10 October is the World Sight Day. The day is observed on the second Thursday of October every year. The roundtable was in fact organised to mark the day. The slogan of the World Sight Day this year is ‘Children: Love Your Eyes’.

With this theme in sight, “Ensuring eye care in health sector: setbacks and way out” was fixed as the topic of discussion at the roundtable. Notable ophthalmologists and representatives from different non-government organisations working with eye health participated at the roundtable.

International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) Bangladesh Chapter chairman and Ophthalmological Society of Bangladesh (OSB) president, professor AHM Enayet Hossain attended the roundtable as a special speaker. He said that despite a lot of limitations, there has been progress of eye healthcare in the country.

The first national-level eyesight survey among the people aged above 30 years was conducted in the country back in 2003. As much as 1.53 per cent of the country’s total population was sightless back then. The latest survey from 2020 showed that the ratio of blindness among the people of this age group has dropped to 1 per cent.

The number of visually impaired is now less than six in every 10,000. However, there’s no room for complacence here. There’s disparity in many cases. It’s possible to bring down the number of people with visual imparity even more with proper treatment.

Professor Enayet Hossain further said that including the matter of eye healthcare with the healthcare sector alone won’t be enough. The time has come to consider it in line with development. It appeared in researches conducted by different countries around the world that better eyesight facilitates significant advancement in production as to the overall development.

Now policies have to be adopted by incorporating the matter of eye care with the main stream of socio-economic development. In that case, special care has to be taken in children’s eye health protection.

Chairman of the Academic committee at the National Institute of Ophthalmology, professor Abdul Kader said there’s no guidelines for eye healthcare. The lack of eye specialists and trained staff in this sector is a major obstruction when it comes to providing eye healthcare. The institute of ophthalmology is playing a role in producing eye specialists. Their goal is to produce 25 to 30 eye specialists every year. However, there’s a shortage of fund.

In response to a question, professor Kader said those who stare at the screens of various devices including computer monitors for longer periods have to rest their eyes for 15 minutes every two hours. In fact, the children who attend online classes should also follow this rule to maintain better eyesight.  

Country director of Sightsavers, Amrita Rejina Rozario said that their organisation has been working with eyesight health of the public in Bangladesh for 50 years.

For that they have provided various supports including testing eyesight of school-going children, arranging transport for patients to reach hospitals for treatment in different areas, and establishing operation theatres for eye surgeries at government hospitals in 16 districts. Besides, they have special activities for providing eye healthcare facilities especially for the marginal population.

Amrita Rozario added that they have expanded the area of their activities even further recently. They are working with vision impairment of diabetic patients. For that they have been working on partnership with the diabetic society and the government as well.

Non-government organisation Orbis International’s country director in Bangladesh, Munir Ahmed said that eyesight health is extremely important for children. If they suffer from visual impairment it can be a major obstruction towards their intellectual and psychological development. That’s why the matter of children’s eyesight protection needs to be considered on priority basis.

For progress in this sector, arrangements can be made to examine children’s eyesight regularly on school-level. For that it needs to be given importance while formulating government policy.

Divisional director of the directorate of health services in Khulna Md Manjurul Murshid said that there is a massive shortage of ophthalmologists in hospitals all throughout the country. Because of this, adequate eye healthcare cannot be provided to people out of the public hospitals.

Giving an example of his own division, he said that hospitals in six out of the ten districts do not have any ophthalmologist. The situation is even worse at upazila level. As a result, even if there is a government programmes on eye health, they do not get implemented at the field level for the lack of workforce.

Director of SFM Eye Hospital and Training Institute Gopalganj, professor Nahid Ferdowsi said that this specialised hospital started providing service in 2016. She emphasised on seeking services properly from suitable institutes for the protection of eyesight health.

A medical guide has been created from their institution. Better results will be achieved in this case, if the non-government organisations work with government organisation on the basis of partnership, she mentioned.

Singer and a teacher Joyeeta Talukdar said that children nowadays have to stay in front of screens for long hours also for learning purposes apart from entertainment. This is creating problems for their eyesight health. However, parents have to be aware that children do not stay in front of the screen for long periods of time.

Executive director of non-government organisation Clear Vision Collective, Mohammed Rofiqul Islam said that in addition to government initiatives eyesight healthcare services have been expanded on the grassroots level due to the roles of the non-government organisations.

Coordinator of Dr K Zaman BNSB Eye Hospital in Mymensingh, Parag Sharifuzzaman said that a lot of policies are adopted on the national level but they do not get implemented on the filed level in many cases.

Executive director of Blind Education and Rehabilitation development Organisation, an organisation of people with vision imparity, Md Saidul Haque said that people without sight are deprived of a lot of facilities. Public awareness has to be raised to prevent vision imparity.

Programme manager of The Fred Hollows Foundation AKM Badrul Haque said that eye healthcare has to be taken to the marginal population. And, they have various activities for that.

Coordinator of Sightsavers, Khandoker Sohel Rana said that the importance of vision would be highlighted in the programmes taken to observe World Sight Day.

The roundtable was moderated by Prothom Alo assistant editor Firoz Choudhury. He said that the goal of the roundtable was to create public awareness about the importance of eyesight and to present experts’ recommendations at the policymaking level of the government.