‘Over three million children suffer from eye disorders annually’

Rawalpindi: Every twentieth child in Pakistan is suffering from squint or refractive error while three million children require eyeglasses annually to overcome eye disorders, Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital said Tuesday.

The government should make it mandatory that every child must undergo a detailed eye examination at the time of admission in the school so that an eye or sight disorder can be treated in time, said Professor Dr. Tayyab Afghani, Director Projects, Al-Shifa Trust.

He said that the trust has screened the eyes of two and a half million children in Rawalpindi Division during the last 25 years and the data compiled shows that only twenty percent children with some sort of disorder use glasses while others simply ignore it.

Majority of the parents of the children needing treatment and glasses also ignores the issue for as long as possible which is a very dangerous tendency, he added. Dr. Afghani said that fifteen thousand teachers have been given basic training regarding sight problems while 150,000 children with squint have been treated successfully.

He informed that squint, refractive errors, and low vision should be treated before the age of sixteen as it becomes complicated with the passage of time and it can result in blindness. Squint problem occurs usually due to careless attitude of paramedical staff at the time of birth. He said that Al-Shifa Trust is building Asia’s largest children eye hospital where around five hundred patients would be checked on daily basis.

He said that eight mobile teams of the Al-Shifa Trust remain engaged in screening at different schools while a qualified optometrist must be made available at every union council.