By ROMANUS UGWU
Sure, an insignificant number of parents in Nigeria ever bothered to attribute the poor performance of their children in school to eye sight-related problems and poor vision. Yet most children that are apparently not doing well academically are probably suffering from blurred sight .
That was the submission of the Nigerian Optometric Association (NOA) during the celebration of this year’s World Sight Day in Abuja with ‘let’s make vision count’ as the call for action. They celebrated the day with medical outreach to several primary schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) last week.
A fellow of NOA, Dr Ozy Okonokhna who spoke to Daily Sun, hinged the decision to conduct eye tests to the school children in the FCT on the survey that 90 per cent of children of school age never had their eyes examined.
While enumerating the causes of the increasing cases of eye related problems in children, Dr Ozy warned that mothers addicted to alcoholism and smoking during pregnancy expose their children to high risk of eye impairments.
Surprisingly, the optometrists argued that contrary to popular impression that exposure to television and other communication gadgets affect children’s vision; such exposure however enhances their visualisation.
Concentrating this year’s World Sight Day on school children
The decision to focus on the FCT school children during this year’s activity, according to the NOA, was to create awareness on the neglected eye problem ravaging school children across the country.
In his words: “We joined millions of others across the globe to mark this year’s world sight day. It is a global event celebrated every second Thursday of October every year. This year’s call for action is ‘let’s make vision count’. We decided to focus on school children this year because we realised that 90 per cent of children of school age never had their eyes examined.”
“This is a very worrisome issue especially if you juxtapose it with the understanding that sight is the fastest and easiest way to learn. Learning is enhanced with vision and most children that are apparently not doing well academically are probably not mentally challenged but because their vision don’t allow them to see clearly what is taught in the class.
“Pictorial representation of a subject is the easiest way to pass on knowledge. We hope that by focusing on the school children and identifying those with vision related problems and addressing them will not only improve the quality of their lives but also enhance their chances of survival in the global community,” he said.
Major causes in the children
There have been myriad of causes of eye problems in the children ranging from hereditary to carelessness. Enumerating them, he said: “They are many but increase awareness is bringing more people to the catchment area. There were so many unreported cases previously. There are hereditary factors where some conditions in children are inherited.”
“We have infantile glaucoma, genetic disorder like mothers smoking or drinking alcohol during pregnancy exposing their children to all forms of visual-related problems. There are other issues that are not inherited like children with refractive errors.
“A child born with myopia was born with it just like a child born with hyper myopia. There are some other cases acquired while others are as a result of secondary issues like trauma from playing with rubber bands or sharp objects that sometimes result to irreversible form of visual impairments,” he said.
Preventives measures
Suffering eye-related problems is not a death sentence but exposure to the causative agents could solve many of the problems. According to optometrists, beating the children, poor hygiene and exposure to certain objects should be avoided.
“We should avoid children playing with sharp objects because there are cases of school age coming down with trauma as a result of playing with sharp objects like broomsticks, razors among others.
“Parent must also avoid battering their children that may result to irreversible visual impairment. Good hygiene is also very important especially in the northern part of the country. Personal hygiene can also help prevent certain diseases like trachoma.
“We can improve the chances of children overcoming the diseases by giving them proper nutrition. The eyes of a malnourished child will not develop properly. The eyes grow for a long period of time until late 10s and early 20s and children must be nourished properly at that stage to enhance the growth of the eyes,” he said.
However, the NOA vice president (north), Dr Olafesoye added a controversial dimension to this claiming that contrary to popular believe that exposure to television and electronic gadgets are major causes, they enhance the eyes.
“Television and electronic gadgets do not constitute vision problem in the children especially if the eyes is working perfectly. In fact, the more a child is using the eyes to do visual task, the better the eyes. Preventing the children from using their eyes for such task could result to eye problem. Exposing them to such visual task will rather enhance their sight. The eyes degenerate if they are not subjected to visual task.”
State more susceptible to eye problems
According to statistics, there are parts of Nigeria with high susceptibility to eye problem. Corroborating the research, they said: “As far as Nigeria is concerned, there are some parts of the country with high incidence of blindness and visual impairment than the other.
“In the 2005 national blindness and low vision survey, the North West has the highest number of blind persons. The possible causes include environmental factors like increase desertification.
“It could also be attributed to personal hygiene which is associated with trachoma. We have advocated that people in that part of the country must improve in their personal hygiene and tackle the issue of desertification because the dry nature of the environment makes the eyes prone to Corneal which leads to blindness.
“There is also high prevalence of cataract in that environment caused by exposure to high component ultraviolent rays in the sun. There is reduction of blindness in southern Nigeria compare to the prevalence in the north. I am sure that by now the North-east would have overtaken the North-west in the prevalence of blindness due to the effects of Boko Haram insurgency.”
Diet prone to blindness
Asked whether there are diets that can inflict or prevent blindness, Dr Ozy said: “There is really no food that can lead of blindness but we have to also know that every food becomes poison if taken in excess. On the positive side, diets rich in vitamin A will naturally help the eyes develop.
“It will also buttress the integrity of the eyes and help it to fight infections. Fruits rich in vitamin A like pawpaw, carrots and yellow fruits naturally help to strengthen the eyes.
“The NOA has taken the lead in terms of creating awareness and providing intervention. It is not enough to sit in the comfort of our offices or theatre in the hospitals and talk about sight related issues. We must be in the field creating awareness to take people to the clinic.
“The NOA has actually been playing its role in generating interest to eye-related issues but government still have huge role to play by ensuring an eye care centre in every primary health care centre in this country to provide services.
“Nigerians must not visit Teaching or General Hospitals to check simple itching of their eyes. They can just walk into the nearest eye care centre but government is not taking the lead in ensuring that we have an optometrist in each primary health centres in this country,” he said.
Quacks taking over the profession
Undoubtedly, many Nigerians have gone bat-blind because of patronage to wrong eye care providers. Expressing concern while admitting this, the NOA said: “We are concerned that quacks are taking over the healthcare profession generally. It is not just in eye care but every other profession but we encourage all regulatory bodies to come on board in handling the menace of quacks.”