Al-Shifa Trust Screens 175,000 Kids At Free Eye Camps

APP

Rawalpindi: Al-Shifa Trust has screened approximately 175,000 children at 550 free eye camps in the underprivileged areas of Pakistan over the course of a year.

Al-Shifa Center for Community Ophthalmology Deputy General Manager Dr Hasan Raza stated that 50 per cent children having eye problems were unable to see them clearly while many had congenital cataracts.

Dr Raza further said that convergence insufficiency was responsible for kids experiencing blurry vision since it occurs when nerves responsible for controlling the muscles around eyes do not function properly. “In convergence insufficiency, if someone looks closely at something, one eye goes out,” he added.

He said that myopia was the second most prevalent disease observed among them since almost thirty per cent children suffered from myopia or nearsightedness, adding that this is a common vision condition characterized by focusing light rays in front of retina instead of making them focused on nerve tissues at the back side of human’s eye.

Dr Hasan stated that the alarming occurrence of congenital cataracts and that children are required to be screened for cataracts early enough to reduce chances of long-term vision impairment by early treatment.

The ACCO transports and feeds such children to Al-Shifa Trust Hospital Rawalpindi.

He informed that remote areas such as districts Rawalpindi, Sukkur, Kohat, Muzaffarabad and Chakwal were provided with free eye camps.

Going through these camps 175,000 students were screened and treated while a total of 13000 cases have been referred to Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital.

He also revealed that other eye problems including blepharitis, hyperopia, squint, corneal opacity, traumatic cataracts and astigmatism were found amongst children.

He said ACCOs main objective is to identify school screening eye camps with a view to helping kids with sight issues at an early age while they teach them on how to keep their eyes healthy as part of the preventive measures.

The trust launched its outreach project in 1992 and set up free eye camps nationwide targeting remote areas since most patients residing there do not have access to quality health care services.

He asserted that due to rapid increase in eye related problems all public and private facilities should put more effort towards fighting this menace.