As the month of January is Glaucoma awareness month, the educational functions of optometrists is at one of its zenith. Glaucoma is a group of disorders with distinctiveness of progressive death of the optic nerve. It comes along with characteristic appearance at the back of the eye, high pressure in the eye and irreversible visual field loss (blindness). Hardly would glaucoma present with symptoms till is too late, it only some very few types that present with symptoms at the onset of the disease, hence the only out to help this canker in education and routine eye examination.
Glaucoma is no respecter of persons, irrespective of your age, status or wealth, it may decide rear its head, research has shown that 1 out of every 10000 babies born in the United States of America are born with the condition already, a condition referred to as infantile glaucoma. However it is tends to be misdiagnosed due to lots of differential diagnosis, also its symptoms become more evident when the mother had left the hospital hence it he or she has no idea about these symptoms the child may end up never getting his or her vision in the first place.
In the US over 3 million citizens have glaucoma and yet only half of them are aware, more than 120000 have lost their sight to glaucoma. Glaucoma is known to be the second leading cause of blindness in World as at now according to World Health Organization and the estimated number of suspected cases worldwide is known to be about 60 million. Out of 1000 of people interviewed on glaucoma knowledge 30% had never heard of it, whereas 50% were not sure what it was, according a research conducted by Prevent Blindness America. It for this reason why @bettervision was invited to partake in the community glaucoma health talk as Jachie-Pramso Eye Clinic, the bigger the merrier, task becomes easier with numbers too. The program was held on the 23rd of January, which is yesterday and lasted for about half of the day. Community members who attended were educated on every aspects of glaucoma and how to look of for certain symptoms and also have regular checkups. The talk was followed by some screening exercise and some refreshments.
Help save sights today, Propagate Glaucoma Awareness to your neighbor.
Report by @nattybongo.
What is @bettervision about?
@bettervision is is a project initiated by @nattybongo and friends to give back to the society the knowledge and skill acquired through the Optometric Studies in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.It is an outreach system where we visit the less privileged communities to offer free eye screening services and education to the people within the community
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To reduce or prevent vision loss through diseases such as glaucoma, cataract and refractive errors.
To enlighten the majority of the Ghanaian population about the importance of proper visual care.
To conscientize people on the need for regular eye checks
To get more people to have their wards screened within the Critical periods of a Child’s Vision Development; thus from ages 3 to till about 10 years.
To help the blind and people with low vision live a better life within the society through education of the general public to stop stigmatization.
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