‘Around one million glaucoma patients blind in Pakistan’

RAWALPINDI: There are more than two million glaucoma patients in Pakistan and almost half of them have already lost their eyesight, permanently, due to delay in diagnosis and treatment.

This was expressed in an awareness session held at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital on Friday in connection with World Glaucoma Week with an aim at raising awareness about glaucoma. The Executive Director of Al-Shifa Trust Brigadier (r) Rizwan Asghar said the glaucoma is the major cause of blindness not only in Pakistan but also around the world. He regretted 90 per cent of the population in the country has no awareness about this disease, resultantly, more and more people are becoming permanently blind in Pakistan due to untreated glaucoma.

He said the trust would continue its awareness campaign through its free eye camps to eradicate the disease.

Al-Shifa President Lt General (r) Hamid Javed has instructed the hospital management to include all eye patients above 40, for glaucoma screening at free eye camps all over the country, he informed.

The head of glaucoma department Dr Farah Akhtar said that patients of blood pressure and diabetes must care for their eyes and get examine their eyes regularly by qualified ophthalmologist so as to preserve their eyesight. She said prompt diagnosis of glaucoma is necessary as treatment of this disease with medicines is very costly and beyond reach of common man. Dr Mehmood, a specialist doctor in glaucoma treatment said unfortunately there are no clear-cut symptoms of glaucoma and many patients find them suffering from this disease when it has already reached advanced stage.